Green Eyes in Overdrive
by blackberet
Summary: Years ago, a blitzball team was disbanded by order of Yevon. The mystery behind the event--and the death of a young woman--were covered up. Now, one Al Bhed blitzer searches for the truth...
1. Prologue: Stoic

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
All right, people, you asked for it and I finally got around to delivering it. Linna's back.  
  
I've tried to have things make some sense so if you're new to the storyline, you'll have SOME idea what's going on. However, I highly recommend that if you haven't already, you go read the fic on which this one is based, "Hey, Green Eyes." I don't think you'll regret it--it wasn't *that* bad...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
prologue: Stoic  
  
**********  
  
SLAM!  
  
A flash of red and black and white reeled backwards through the clear blue water. Bubbles shot toward the surface of the sphere and the figure of a man slowly separated itself out from the whirl and floated in the fetal position before searing forward again.  
  
The orange-gold blur was still streaking toward one of the radial points of the sphere. The rough shape of a white triangle was getting closer. Twenty yards...fifteen...ten...all of a sudden, a blue and white ball hurtled straight at the heart of that goal. The shot was point- blank. Blocking it would be all but impossible. The numbers flashed in gold on the clock: 9:57. 9:58.  
  
A white-gloved hand shot out and snatched the ball. The buzzer rang.  
  
*****  
  
Rumo cred.  
  
The lights in the theater flickered on. I groaned and blinked. Bickson was already on his feet, removing the movie sphere from the base of the stand and stretching. The electronic menu flickered and shut off.  
  
"All right, Linna. You impressed yet?" he asked me.  
  
"Oh, yeah, man, lemme tell ya. Those are the Spira Spirals, huh?" I asked.  
  
"Yep." He tossed the sphere up into the air, caught it behind his back, and started heading for the door. I sighed, leaned my head back for one last second of luxury in those gorgeous plush seats, and followed.  
  
I was on my weekly trip to Luca--two days out of every seven, whether I needed it or not--and my boyfriend had spent the day showing me home movies straight out of his head, courtesy of the Luca sphere theater. The last one had been a tape of a blitzball game he'd played in when he was in the minor leagues, playing for a short-lived team called the Spira Spirals. The team had gone kaput when the Yevon temple disbanded it with no warning. The goalie had gone kaput, period.  
  
"You've come a long way since then, street rat," I commented. "That botched tackle nearly cost you the game. I can't believe that sucker from the Moombas got the ball from you."  
  
He raised his hands palm-up like he was fending me off. "Yeah, well, I was a kid. These were the minor leagues, remember?"  
  
"That goalie didn't look too minor-league to me."  
  
"Reppi? Ha. Yeah. She saved my ass out there that day." We were making our way through the reception room now. He reached out as we passed the desk and dropped the sphere down a little chute in the side.  
  
"Too bad she ain't playing now. I'd probably sign her. Goalies like that are hard to come by. That save--tysh. That was incredible. Nimrook couldn't do that."  
  
"She was pretty hardcore for the minors. Most blitzball goalies really aren't that great. It's too bad that--" Bickson broke off. "--well, forget it. C'mon, let's go to Mitza's and get a burger or something. I'm starving, and the Goers have practice tonight."  
  
"Yeah, us too. Sucks, doesn't it? I commute all the way down here from Besaid and we've gotta spend the whole time busting our butts at practice."  
  
Bick shrugged. "It's a living."  
  
We were out in the main lobby now. The place was jammed with the usual crowd--idiots hawking blitz souveneirs, street musicians trying to make a buck, O'aka stumbling around with his inane accent hitting on chicks like they didn't notice his stupid hat or something. Something caught my eye, though--in the corner, a man dressed in the long red, green and white robes of a Yevonite priest was inserting a pile of movie spheres one by one into a strange hand-held machina. "What's that guy doing?" I whispered to Bickson.  
  
He glanced over. "The priests come by once in a while and view the spheres," he answered. "Just to make sure there's nothing sinful or anti-Yevon in people's memories. That thing he has is a sphere-viewer. The spheres are coming from that chute in the other room. He'll look some of them over and reroute them into storage."  
  
My back probably straightened automatically. I have green eyes and blonde hair. I wear goggles and operate heavy machinery. I'm Al Bhed, and most of the Yevonite priests want me dead. "Little creepy, don't ya think?" I asked.  
  
Bickson laughed. "Hardly, babe. I got nothing to hide." He stuck out a casual hand to hold the door open for me. "Ready to get outta here?"  
  
"Yeah, let's bail." I slipped through the door and followed him out onto the long, crowded causeway that led back to the great city of Luca. I only glanced back once--just in time to see the priest lift Bickson's sphere off the pile with long, gnarled fingers and set it into a viewer.  
  
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it all began.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Rumo cred." - "Holy shit." 


	2. Tactitian

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Had fun with the prologue, did we? If you liked that, you'll love this. If you didn't like it, you'll love this anyway. I hope.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 1: Tactician  
  
**********  
  
Two weeks later:  
  
I am *not* a morning person.  
  
Most people use that expression when they don't wake up easily. Maybe they're still a little groggy when they leave the house for work. Maybe they need a cup of coffee and the morning paper before they feel like getting dressed. Maybe they like to hit the snooze button on their alarm clock a couple times.  
  
This is not what I mean when I tell you I'm not a morning person. What I mean is that I am, no exaggerations, almost completely homicidal at any time before, say, 10 AM. Before I even open my eyes, I'm cursing at my sister for making me get up. I'm still cursing as I snork down three cups of black coffee. Normally even this doesn't improve my mood.  
  
Today was no exception. I wouldn't've been in a great mood anyway, but I'd had another nightmare that night, which meant I'd shot up at 3:30 with the scents of smoke and blood still in my nostrils and screamed like a ninny until my two roommates had finally managed to convince me that no, the Guado were NOT attacking Home again.  
  
Said roommates were sitting calmly around the kitchen table when I got up. As always, my darling 16-year-old sister, Naaga, was looking infuriatingly cheerful. She was shoveling sugar- drenched cornflakes into her mouth. On the other side of the table, Bickson, my boyfriend-slash- professional-rival, was polishing off what looked like his third power bar, given the pile of metallic wrappers sitting on the table.  
  
"Mrrnnngg, Lnneee," Naaga greeted me through a mouthful of cornflakes, by some miracle managing to avoid spewing damp little off-white flecks everywhere.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I grumped, snagging a mug from the cupboard and dumping everything that was left in the coffee pot into it.  
  
"Hey, Linna." Bickson was a little more cordial, which was good, considering it was his apartment Naaga and I happened to be crashing in every weekend. We were doing this because our apartment, which had at one time been located in the Al Bhed Home on Bikanel Island, was now lying in approximately 80 million little tiny pieces somewhere in the Sanubia Desert.  
  
I can joke about it now, but at the time it was really not a good situation. My sister and I, obviously, are Al Bhed, which means that we were seriously discriminated against wherever we went. This meant that we were stuck staying at Bickson's place two days a week and spending the rest of the time in our cute little hut in Besaid. This arrangement, which had been going on for about a month, was in place because I--that would be Linna, everybody's favorite blitzing blonde bombshell, in case you haven't picked up on it yet--was a player (and captain-in-training) for the Besaid Aurochs.  
  
"Back at ya," I replied. I raked my fingers through my hair, sat down at the kitchen table, and began snarfing my defrosted blueberry muffin like there was no tomorrow. Which, little did I know at the time, there was serious danger of not being.  
  
Naaga finally swallowed and managed to get out, "What are you doing today, Linnie?"  
  
"Aside from going back to bed?" I asked seriously. They both rolled their eyes at me. "Hmm...it's a Saturday. We're playing somebody tonight. What is this, week five? That means it's the Fangs."  
  
"Hah," snorted Bickson, "Good luck."  
  
"Thank you for your overwhelming support. You guys taught each other any more of your pathetic little linguistic tongue twisters?"  
  
"Yeah," Naaga answered. "I taught him how to say 'Good morning. I'm well, thank you, and I hope you are too. This is such lovely weather' in Al Bhed. Go on, show her, Bickson."  
  
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro," Bickson recited.  
  
I choked on my coffee, which was cold. "Naaga, you lead a truly sad life. As for you, stop translating the damn proper nouns, and you got a word wrong in there. I think you meant to say 'Mehhy' instead of 'Hyyky.'"  
  
"You're a meanie, Linnie," my little sister pouted.  
  
"Always glad to be of service. I'm going down to the locker room to see if the guys are there yet." I stood up, halfheartedly rinsed my mug out and dumped it in the sink, and headed for the door.  
  
"Just a thought--get dressed first," Bickson suggested. "Unless, that is, you really want the entire league to know you sleep in a black satin nightie and pink Moogle slippers."  
  
"One of these mornings, babe, you will not wake up," I muttered through clenched teeth as I grabbed a uniform off a hanger at random and locked myself in the bathroom. I told you I'm not a morning person.  
  
*****  
  
Five minutes later, I was in the hallway off the stadium lobby, dropping my key sphere into the slot in the door of the Besaid Aurochs' locker room. The door swung open and I reached out automatically, expecting to have to flick the lights on. I didn't. Botta and Keepa were already inside.  
  
"Hey! Cap'n LinLin!" Keepa exclaimed. Internally I groaned. After the initial problems I'd had with my teammates, I was glad we were all one big happy family now, but their nickname for me was incredibly annoying. And they really insisted on the Cap'n part--something about getting used to it, they claimed. Personally, I thought they were taking bets on how long it would take them to drive me nuts and get Wakka back.  
  
"My name is Linna, and hello to you too." I came in and closed the door behind me. "You guys made good time, I guess."  
  
"Actually, we got in last night," Botta answered. "Checked into the hotel kinda late, but they were pretty cool about it."  
  
"Where are the rest of the guys?" I asked.  
  
He made a vague gesture. "Ahh, Datto's off in the square gettin' breakfast, said the hotel food was lousy. I haven't seen Letty, but I guess Jassu musta gone for a run or somethin'. When I got up, he was gone."  
  
"Well, since you guys are the ones here, I'll ask you: what time do you want to hold practice? I checked at the front desk; we've got the sphere any time between 11 and 4 today."  
  
"What time's it now?" asked Keepa.  
  
"9:45ish."  
  
Botta thought about it. "11 should be plenty a' time for the others to get back then, ya?"  
  
"Yeah. I'm hoping our equipment'll be here by then too."  
  
"What equipment?" the goalie wanted to know.  
  
"I ordered some extra blitzballs and six brand-new pairs of gloves from Rin. They were supposed to be shipped from the Calm Lands agency to Mi'ihen and then arrive by Chocobo sometime this morning. I left a note with the desk telling them to check." I hoisted my gear bag onto my shoulder and headed for the door. "Well, I'll be back here in an hour or so then, okay?"  
  
"Yes, cap'n!" They both pumped their fists at me as I left. As I stepped back out into the hallway, I wondered how Wakka put up with all that adoration.  
  
*****  
  
I hiked back upstairs to Bickson's room to use the sphere. Rin picked up before the first ring had even finished sounding. "Greetings, Secc Linna," he said in that mellow voice of his.  
  
"Yo, Rin. I am a disgruntled customer," I announced.  
  
The image in the sphere showed him putting on his most concerned frown. "I am sorry to hear that. What seems to be the problem?"  
  
"The blitz stuff I ordered was supposed to be here this morning. The front desk is completely clueless. I just wanted to make sure it's on its way."  
  
"To be honest, I have no idea. I am still residing on the airship, which is currently approximately 30,000 feet over Bevelle. However, I can connect you with the Mi'ihen Agency in hopes that they can assist you."  
  
"Thanks." I waited as the connection clicked over.  
  
Clissi and Ropp, the two regular employees of Rin's Travel Agency, Mi'ihen Branch, were a lot slower on the uptake than their employer. The sphere rang at them four or five times before Clissi finally picked it up with a bored sigh. "Yeaahh?"  
  
Of all the attendants behind all the desks in all the travel agencies in Spira, I had to get this one. "Clissi, it's Linna," I sighed back. "I need to know if that shipment of blitzball equipment I ordered two weeks ago is going to be here anytime soon."  
  
"Uhm, like, I really don't know, Linna. See, the girl that was supposed to bring the stuff from the Calm Lands, y'know, Naida? She, like, never showed up."  
  
I groaned. Should've known it would be Naida. The bikini-clad blitzer and I had never had much love for each other, and we had even less now that she and Aniki, my ex, were an item. It would be just like her to make sure my shipment got in thirty seconds too late to use in tonight's game.  
  
"Okay." I spoke slowly and distinctly, the way you'd talk to your not-particularly-bright four-year-old cousin. "I want you to give the sphere to Ropp, and I want you to ask him to connect me to the Calm Lands Agency, okay?"  
  
"Uhm, okay." She popped her gum down and handed the phone off to Ropp. I repeated my instructions and he switched me over once again.  
  
Ring. Riiing.  
  
"C'mon, Naida, pick up already," I hissed. Naida did not pick up. No one picked up. After a couple minutes of trying, I gave up and severed the connection.  
  
"You look ticked," Naaga commented as she came into the room.  
  
"Naida again." I flopped back on the bed and contemplated the ceiling. "Do me a favor, call Rin back and tell him I can't get an answer. I'd do it myself, but I don't think I have the energy."  
  
Obediently, she went to the sphere and turned it on. Rin's replies were so faint I only heard her end of the conversation, which went something like this: "Hiya, Rin...yeah...she says she can't get an answer...nah, Naida, I think...yeah...oh, okay...okay. Thankies!" She hung up and turned back to me. "He says he'll try to get another one to you by ferry. Hopefully it'll get here by fiveish."  
  
"Five tonight?!" She nodded. "Dammit, our game's at seven! We're not even going to be able to test the gloves. This is bad bad bad."  
  
And it only got worse from there.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Kuut sunhehk. So hysa ec Pelgcuh, yht E ys Hyyky'c syh-cmyja. E ys hud fundro." - "Good morning. My name is Bickson, and I am Naaga's man-slave. I am not worthy." The joke is that Naaga, in teaching this phrase to an unwitting Bickson, has left the proper nouns untranslated so he has no idea what he's really saying.  
  
"Mehhy" - Al Bhed translation of the letters "L-i-n-n-a," which form a name and would therefore not usually be translated  
  
"Hyyky" - "Naaga," with the same translation error as above.  
  
"Secc Linna" - "Miss Linna"  
  
Aniki - the original name for Rikku's brother, simply called "Brother" in the NA translation. 


	3. Comrade

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Please don't sue me. If you do, you'll never find out about everyone's pasts. Or what the Spiral conspiracy really is. Or how movie spheres are made! Isn't that important information?  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 2: Comrade  
  
**********  
  
"Cap'n LinLin, we got a big problem."  
  
I ask you, what blitzball captain with a major game coming up in only a few short hours does not love hearing those words? Okay, me, for one, and they were the first ones I heard when I walked back into the locker room at 11 AM sharp.  
  
"Botta, what are you talking about?" I demanded.  
  
"We found Datto, but we still can't get holda Jassu or Letty," explained Keepa.  
  
"None of you has seen or heard from either one of them all day?"  
  
"Nope." The forward, my former archrival, was shaking his head. "Nothin' since last night. I was sharin' a room with Letty. When I got up, he wasn't there."  
  
"Same with me," Botta said. "Jassu's totally gone."  
  
"All right." I took two deep breaths, counted to ten, and forced myself to stay calm. What the hell would Rin do? "The first thing to do is find them. Keepa, I want you to go to the front desk in the lobby and get them to page Letty and Jassu. If they're in the complex, we'll find 'em. Botta and Datto, you two fan out and check some of the places in the city they'd be likely to go, starting with the Cafe and working back this way. We'll meet back here in two hours."  
  
"What are you gonna do, Cap'n?" the goalkeeper asked.  
  
I cracked my knuckles. "Sharpen my steak knife."  
  
*****  
  
Needless to say, I didn't go sharpen my steak knife; I didn't even own one. Being a very busy single guy, Bickson had subsisted almost solely on fast food, pizza, and TV dinners until Naaga showed up, so he didn't have any either. I would have to resort to plan B, which was: go check Letty and Jassu's rooms.  
  
You have no idea of the kind of smooth talking I had to do to get the hotel security staff to let me in there, not to mention the exact percentage of my paycheck I had to slip most of them, probably enough to put their great-grandchildren through college. But eventually I made my way up to the twentieth floor, the Auroch standard, with two key spheres in hand.  
  
I tried Letty's room first. There was no answer when I knocked, so I put the sphere in the lock and walked straight in. Datto, I knew, hated heights, which meant that the bed right by the balcony with the 20-stories-down view of Luca would probably be Letty's.  
  
The bed had definitely been slept in. But when I opened the closet, four uniforms were hanging inside it. I knew each of the Aurochs, like most blitzers, carried two uniforms per person for a weekend stay like this. It was easy to tell which uniforms were Letty's and which were Datto's, since the forward's were a lot smaller. I rifled quickly through Letty's tiny duffel, but he didn't have any extra clothes. That meant that whereever he'd gone, he'd gone there in pajamas.  
  
Weird.  
  
I went next door into the room Botta and Jassu were sharing. Here it was hard to tell what was going on. I was pretty sure whose junk was whose, but it was all over the two sides of the room. Eventually I sorted out the fact that Jassu had also had the bed nearest to the balcony, and that he'd also spent the night in that bed.  
  
But then I noticed that the lamp near Jassu's bed was knocked over. Even for those two, who had never exactly been known for their neatness, this was way over the top. I walked out onto the balcony and took a look at the round glass table that was sitting out there. It was identical to all the other bajillion glass tables on all the other bajillion balconies of the other rooms, except for one big difference: there was a spiderweb of cracks on the top, like someone had punched the glass and smashed it.  
  
My first thought, after a quick rundown of the current team budget and the muttered words "oh, shit, are we in trouble now," was "REALLY weird." There had definitely been a struggle here. Had Jassu and Botta gotten into a fight or something? Why hadn't Botta told me? And where was Jassu?  
  
These, I decided as I headed back down to the locker room, were questions I wanted answers to.  
  
*****  
  
"So you guys didn't get into an argument or anything?" I asked Botta a few minutes later.  
  
He shook his head again. "Nope. Everythin' was normal."  
  
"So how the hell did you not notice that there was a big fight that ended in someone smashing halfway through your table?"  
  
"These." A pair of earplugs landed on the bench. Botta rubbed the back of his head in embarassment. "Jassu snores reaaaaally bad, ya? So I hafta use these. A wall coulda crashed in and I wouldn't know it."  
  
"And I didn't hear anythin'," Datto added. "He was there when I went ta bed, and when I woke up, he wasn't."  
  
"Neither one of you knows anything?" I sighed in exasperation.  
  
A pudgy hand was raised. Following the arm down, I saw it was attached to Keepa. "I know somethin'," the goalie volunteered.  
  
"Well, cough it up already!"  
  
"I found this in the hallway." He handed me a small round wooden bead.  
  
"What the hell is this?" I demanded.  
  
"Lemme see," Botta asked, holding out his hand. I dropped the bead in and he looked at it. "Dunno."  
  
"It's obvious, dunderhead," Datto snapped. "Look at it. It's a prayer bead like they use in the temples, ya?"  
  
"Ugh, this is getting us nowhere." I took the bead back and started for the door. "I'll keep checking back in. If they're not back by six tonight we're gonna have to cancel the match, so let me know if anything happens."  
  
*****  
  
But no one let me know, and nothing happened, and by five o' clock I was so frantic I could barely see straight. I'd checked the entire arena and virtually every blitz hangout in Luca, and my two missing players were still nowhere to be found. At five I finally gave up and headed out to the docks to see if my shipment was in yet--not like I'd need it now.  
  
The place was in utter chaos, as usual. It was five o' clock on a Saturday night, which meant that every dock was jammed with blitzers and spectators coming and going. Our team--minus two, I thought, grimacing--was already here, and I bet the Fangs were too. I'd talked to Nimrook the day before, but I wasn't sure whether the Psyches were still around. Lately they'd been leaving as quickly as possible after games to avoid the Glories. These days, the Al Bhed and the Guado were not exactly on good terms.  
  
And with good reason, I reflected as I tore around the ring of docks. I didn't want Aniki to go blow up Guadosalam, but when Berrik and Eigaar had nearly gotten into a fistfight with Giera and Zazi the week before, Letty had had to literally hold me back to stop me from joining the fray and busting some heads--or getting my own smashed in the attempt. Everyone was on edge these days. There were times when I envied Tidus and Wakka, getting to hike all over Spira and stay out of trouble. In fact, there were times when I envied anyone who wasn't Al Bhed.  
  
The harbormaster was nowhere to be found either, so I had to run around trying to find anyone who looked like an authority figure. When I finally found one of the shoopuf people, I barked, "Who's in charge of the five o' clock shipment? I'm waiting for my equipment here." Nice it ain't. Efficient it is.  
  
"Zzhhat would be Zzhalitz," the little blue thing answered.  
  
"Okay, great. Where is Zalitz?" I said through gritted teeth, really trying not to explode at this creature on whose good will I was dependent.  
  
"I do not know zzhees. Ssshumtimes hhhe izzhat the Sspheere Theater."  
  
"Why isn't he down here unloading my shipment?!"  
  
"I do not know zzhees eizzher."  
  
"Ahh, forget it!" I charged off towards the theater, throwing a halfhearted "thanks" over my shoulder.  
  
Not surprisingly, the grounds outside the theater were pretty much empty. The Sphere Theater, that fun little movie joint whose specialty is copying sounds and memories from people's minds and turning them into spheres, is open virtually 24-7. Blitzball games happen only three times a week, and these days the Aurochs were a hot property. Just outside, I had to fight my way through a throng of vendors who were trying to sell me the same autographed blitzballs I'd signed the week before.  
  
If the walkway was empty, the lobby was completely deserted. I called Zalitz's name a couple of times, but if he was there, he was hiding. No answer was forthcoming. The punk was nowhere to be found.  
  
*****  
  
Well, I decided, hunkering down on the floor with my back against a wall to think, this was not good. In fact, it was downright crappy. Letty was gone, Jassu was gone, Naida hadn't gotten my shipment in and Zalitz hadn't picked up the replacement. It was almost six, and with no practice, no equipment and a third of our team missing, there was no way the Aurochs were going to be in that sphere tonight. I'd just have to go to the lobby and try to get the game rescheduled. Oh, cred, was I gonna have to forfeit the match? It'd count as a loss, and that would be our first loss of the season. The way the Psyches were playing, one loss might be enough to bounce us.  
  
Something clicked in my mind and I sat up straighter. Letty. Jassu. Naida. Zalitz. There was something there, some kind of mental connection I'd made between them. Those names belonged together, but I couldn't quite remember why. After a few minutes, it came to me. Tattoos. I remembered that. Weird target-shaped tattoos, like Bickson's. Letty, Jassu and Zalitz all had the same kind; Naida had a string of them straight down the front of her body.  
  
All of a sudden, it hit me. I knew why those names fit together. I'd seen all the pieces of the puzzle fit together on the screen in that same theater a week before.  
  
I dashed into the reception room of the theater. "I need to make a sphere of something, quickly," I announced to the gum-snapping receptionist, trying to convey a sense of immediate urgency.  
  
"Just one movie sphere?" she asked. "Pop," added the bubble of gum as it splattered gooily back between her pursed lips. Eew.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That'll be 2000 gil."  
  
"Tysh!" I hissed without thinking. "Is it always that expensive?"  
  
"Who cares? I'm sitting at the counter today and I'll charge what I feel like, okay? Now are you gonna pay or not?"  
  
2000 gil was two-thirds of my salary for the tournament. It was two weeks' pay, minus my bonus for my status as quasi-apprentice-captain. It was also absolutely outrageous. Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice, so I regretfully forked it over. I'd just have to advance myself next week's salary.  
  
"All right," she sighed. She stood up, popped her gum, and gestured to a small room behind the counter. "Do you accept the fact that the Luca Sphere Theater, Ltd., is not responsible for any injury or trauma you may occur during the process of transferring or viewing your memories?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Do you have any allergies, including but not limited to: moonflow, metal, or peanut butter?"  
  
"Who the hell is allergic to metal?"  
  
"Any self-respecting Yevonite. Metal is used in machina. Just answer the question."  
  
"No, I don't." I tried to restrain myself from asking if they had popcorn.  
  
"Remove your goggles and step this way, please," she recited. I unstrapped my stylish eyewear a little nervously, hoping she wouldn't decide to kick me out when she saw my swirled green eyes. She didn't seem to notice, and we continued into the tiny chamber.  
  
"All right," she repeated once we were both inside. "In a minute, I'm gonna step outside and flip a switch. The room'll fill with Moonflow. Keep your eyes open and concentrate on the memory you wanna transfer. When you're done, I flip the switch again and the Moonflow goes into a sphere. Then you can take it into the theater and play it. Got all that?"  
  
"Yeah," I replied. She stepped out and slammed the door. Clenching my goggles too tightly in one metal-encased fist, I slouched back against the wall and waited apprehensively as the Moonflow seeped into the room. It made a hissing sound as it passed through the ducts in the walls.  
  
I don't like Moonflow. Don't like it at all. First off, no one knows exactly what it is, except that it's apparently produced naturally in the Farplane and--appropriately enough--the Moonflow. It's a mind-altering substance, which means that it's used for everything from a cheap high by street junkies to a way to see the dead. That's the most macabre part of it all--Moonflow seems to have some connection to memories and the dead. And that, ladies and gentlemen, combined with the fact that it's a hallucinogen that makes you see things that aren't real and that it's infested with Pyreflies, is why I hate Moonflow.  
  
It's also cold. I shivered as the room started turning weird shades of blue and green and purple. A few Pyreflies glowed faintly at first through the mists, but I took several deep breaths to calm myself and willed them to go away. I could feel my pupils struggling to dialate and I screwed my eyes shut before remembering that the attendant had said to keep them open.  
  
"Kad ed dukadran, Linna," I muttered to myself, trying to focus through the haze that was entering my brain. Rin had always taught me to pick one thing and concentrate on it, the way you use "spotting," or picking one object and watching it to keep from getting dizzy, when you're spinning in a blitz sphere. I could do that. Bickson's clear blue eyes appeared in my mind.  
  
Then I mentally sketched out the rest of Bickson, drew myself with him, and put us both in the Luca blitz sphere. It was night. I could see the stars overhead. He'd had his arms around me. I'd asked about the tattoos. What had he said? What were the names? Who were the people who'd been in those black and white uniforms in the movie we'd watched?  
  
"You didn't keep your eyes open!" snapped the attendant, bursting in. I blinked. The Moonflow was gone. "The quality'll probably be really shitty now. Why doesn't anyone ever do what I tell them?"  
  
"Where's my sphere?" I asked.  
  
She almost threw at me. "Go watch it, but don't blame me if it's bad."  
  
I brushed past her and took the stairs up to the balcony of the Sphere Theater two at a time. The little electronic menu glowed as I touched it, and I thrust the sphere in the base and jabbed the screen to start it playing.  
  
*****  
  
"It's the symbol of my first minor-league team."  
  
"We were called the Spirals."  
  
"They don't exist anymore."  
  
"The team was disbanded by order of the Maesters not long after I moved up."  
  
"The six of us ended up with some really wicked tattoos."  
  
"Letty and Jassu...Zalitz...Naida."  
  
*****  
  
The Spira Spirals. Of course. Bickson's old minor-league team, before he'd hit it big. They'd all gotten tattoos for team unity or something. The Yevonite temples had shut them down for some reason. The goalie, Reppi, had gone missing. They never found a body. He'd warned me that night to be careful, that something was going on in the temples.  
  
Now I was sure I knew what it was. Four of the Spirals had gone missing in one day. There was no way that could be a coincidence. And only one of them was left.  
  
Bickson.  
  
I started running.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
cred - shit  
  
tysh - damn  
  
"Kad ed dukadran." - "Get it together." 


	4. Ally

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
See plot. See plot thicken. See mage resolve plot issues. See brilliant characterization. See lawyers staying far, far away.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 3: Ally  
  
**********  
  
"Bickson!" I cried as I slammed through the door to the apartment.  
  
"In here," his voice called back from one side, and something in my chest gave an involuntary lurch--okay, so maybe I'm just a little sentimental. With a huge mental sigh of relief, I walked toward the sound until I reached the bathroom, where the door was hanging open. Bickson was standing in front of the mirror above the sink, twisting a ponytail holder into his red hair. Naaga was sitting on the edge of the bathtub with her entire makeup bag cradled in her arms, obviously waiting to use the mirror.  
  
"What are you still doing here, green eyes? It's after six. Shouldn't you be down in the locker room doing warmups?" he asked, turning to look at me.  
  
"I'm gonna have to cancel the game," I replied angrily. I was still a little out of breath.  
  
"What? Why?"  
  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Naaga listening with interest. Great. Just what I needed, my kid sister getting all freaked out. Rin would kill me if it turned out I was wrong and I got Naaga upset over nothing. If I told her it was bee season, she would build a bomb shelter and refuse to come out for two weeks.  
  
"C'mere," I ordered, grabbing Bickson's wrist and half-dragging him into the bedroom, where I slammed the door shut behind us. The walls and doors in his apartment are pretty thick. Naaga wouldn't be able to hear anything softer than a yell except with her face pressed against the keyhole.  
  
"Whoa," he smirked, "you move pretty fast, don't you?"  
  
"Shut up, sunuh," I rapped back. "Now's not the time. Two of my starting players are missing."  
  
"Who?" he asked.  
  
"Jassu and Letty." I flopped down on the bed, and he sat down next to me. "But that's not it. I was waiting for a shipment of stuff from Rin. Naida was supposed to get it here, and no one knows what happened to her. And then Zalitz was supposed to handle it at the docks, but he's nowhere to be found either."  
  
"As fascinating as this is, I'm a blitzer, not the missing persons department. They're all adults. And you know Naida, chances are she's on vacation anyway. It's probably nothing to worry about."  
  
"Are you not getting this? Jassu, Letty, Naida, Zalitz?"  
  
His eyebrows creased into a frown. "The Spirals."  
  
"Exactly. They're all going missing, Bickson. Four of them have already disappeared. I'm worried you might be next."  
  
He looked at me seriously. I looked back, even more gravely.  
  
"Linna," he asked slowly, "Have you been getting enough sleep?"  
  
"What? What kinda question is that?" I demanded. "Stop patronizing me. I think the other Spirals are being kidnapped, and I think the temples are behind it."  
  
"Look." His voice dropped, the way everyone's did when they were about to slam Yevon. "I'd be the first to admit that I think something weird's going on within the temples. But kidnapping? That's crazy. Why would anyone want to kidnap us?"  
  
"Don't ask me. I don't even know who the hell would want you."  
  
"Oh, come on, that was harsh," he complained. "I'm not the bad guy here. I seriously appreciate your concern, but--"  
  
In the other room, Naaga screamed.  
  
*****  
  
It wasn't a short shriek of surprise. It wasn't a fangirl squeal, either. It was a long, loud, bloodcurdling scream. Both Bickson and I shot up and sprinted for the door at the same time.  
  
She was sprawled on the floor in the living room, with her breath coming out in short, high yips of fear. Her green eyes, uncovered by goggles, were wide. She was clutching a plastic safety razor in one hand.  
  
"Naaga, what happened?!" I cried, throwing myself onto my knees next to her.  
  
"Oh, Linnie!" She dropped the razor and threw her arms around me, crying. "I was so scared. He came in through the window and asked me where Bickson was, and I didn't want to tell him--"  
  
"Who came in, Naaga?" She sobbed into my shoulder. I tightened my grip on hers. "Naaga, baby, I'm sorry, but I need to know who came in."  
  
"I don't know!" she choked in a burbling half-sob. "He was wearing long robes. Green and red and white, with a big black collar."  
  
"The kind of robes the Yevon priests wear." Bickson's voice was almost a gasp.  
  
"What happened then, Naaga?" I asked, ignoring him.  
  
Naaga sniffled. "He shook me and tried to make me tell, but he sounded so mean. I didn't want to say because I was scared he'd try and hurt Bickson. I got away from him and got back into the bathroom and grabbed the razor. I told him if he grabbed me again I'd cut him."  
  
At this point she broke down again for a few minutes. I rubbed her back in slow circles and waited for her to calm down. When she finally continued, it was in almost inaudible Al Bhed. "Ra lysa yd sa, yht E cdilg dra nywun uid yd res. E cmelat drnuikr cusadrehk yht lid res, E drehg. Yvdan dryd, ra oammat yht nyh pylg uid dra fehtuf."  
  
"What?" Bickson asked.  
  
"She says she cut him and he ran away," I translated.  
  
"How?"  
  
"The window."  
  
"We're nine stories up. How, exactly, does someone run out the window?"  
  
I walked over to the open window and leaned out slightly. Silhouetted against the setting sun was the dark shape of a Zu. I could just make out the tiny figure on its back.  
  
"A fiend. They used a trained fiend to get here," I said.  
  
"So what's this?" I looked over to see Bickson holding up another piece of thin white string, with wooden beads dangling from it. More beads were spilled on the floor.  
  
"Prayer beads," I breathed. "She must've cut the string with the razor." I picked it up and experimentally slashed it through the air. "It's tough to cut anything with this, but if ya had the right angle, ya might be able to do it."  
  
"But I don't get it. I mean, I've had crazy fans try to get to me before, but sneaking in a ninth-story window? Why not just wait until I got into the arena?" he wondered.  
  
"Because the place is already packed. Everyone's already in the stadium. If you wanted to kidnap someone, no one would even notice."  
  
"Why would anyone want to kidnap me?"  
  
"Don't know, don't care. But if they're willing to hurt my little sister to do it, I'm not sticking around here." I smoothed Naaga's hair back behind her ears. She had stopped sobbing and was now making small snuffling noises into my sleeve. I made a mental note to get it washed before the next game. If there was a next game.  
  
"Can't say I blame you," Bickson sighed. "There's probably one last ferry back to Besaid tonight. Get down to the lobby and cancel the game while I pack your stuff. If you hurry, you can make it."  
  
"I thought you didn't believe my conspiracy theories," I said as I headed for the door.  
  
"I don't. But I'd have a horde of angry Aurochs fans trying to get at me in more aggressive ways than sneaking through my window if I let anything happen to their star forward. I'd get going if I were you."  
  
*****  
  
Twenty minutes later, Naaga and I were making our way through the now-deserted ring of docks to number three, at the very back of the arena, from which point our ferry was scheduled to leave in another ten minutes. We were hurrying, heads down, and if I thought praying would do me any good I would've been praying that no one would see we were Al Bhed and jump us.  
  
This was a possibility, one that seemed more and more likely. It wasn't just the blitzers fighting. Mi'ihen was still fresh in everyone's minds, and the crime rates against Al Bhed were up. I knew I'd better be prepared for a fight with any Guado that crossed our path and recognized us. Where the hell were the dock security people? Why were we here alone?  
  
The docks were dimly-lit. There were no people around anywhere. Naaga pressed close to me, and though neither of us said anything, I could taste the fear hanging thick in the air like the smell before a storm.  
  
I felt the swoosh of wind against my face before anything else. It was a stilly, muggy night, and the heat and humidity were making my hair frizz. But the breeze stopped me, and after that I heard the footsteps. By the time the knife rushed past me, I had already jerked Naaga aside and gotten my blitzball out of my gear bag.  
  
"Run!" I yelled at my little sister, who obediently fled. I turned and followed her.  
  
The footsteps followed.  
  
With the kind of involuntary yell that comes with a release of energy, I lobbed the ball back over my shoulder. There was an angry howl of pain, and then the ball was back in my hands and I was running for dear life.  
  
*****  
  
"This," Bickson announced, like we hadn't already figured it out, "is bad."  
  
We were slumped around his kitchen table in varying states of stress and depression. Naaga had her head buried underneath her arms, and I could hear her murmering to herself in Al Bhed. She was shaking. The chill from her clammy skin was coming through the pile of blankets wrapped around her, and it made me uneasy. Bickson didn't look significantly better. His red hair was flattened on one side where he'd been balancing that side of his face in his hand. I was showing more signs of life than either of them, but this was probably due primarily to the fact that I was gulping down my third cup of coffee like Wakka chugs his beer. In a few minutes I'd probably be shaking too. At least, I thought sardonically, if I ODed on caffeine I wouldn't need to worry about being kidnapped or anything.  
  
Bickson was looking at me like he wanted an answer. "No shit, genius," I snapped. "I don't know how we got dragged into this, but it bites."  
  
"Forgive me. Next time I'm about to get kidnapped, I'll make sure you two aren't in my apartment," he replied sarcastically. "Look, seriously, I agree that it bites, but bitching at me doesn't do any good. We need to figure out what to do."  
  
"What do you mean, we need to figure it out?" Naaga cried. Her voice was muffled. "We need to hide."  
  
"Great. Brilliant. Where?" I asked.  
  
"The airship?"  
  
"I don't even know where they are, and they're definitely not gonna come here just to pick us up."  
  
"Besaid?"  
  
"Oh, right, of course!" I smacked my forehead. "Run straight to the ONE PLACE EVERYONE IN SPIRA KNOWS WE HANG OUT FIVE DAYS A WEEK. Why didn't I see it earlier?"  
  
"Who do we know that we can impose on?" Bickson asked.  
  
I ticked names off on my fingers. "Rin...no. Tidus...no, don't even know where he is. Miyu...hey, Miyu."  
  
"We crash at Miyu's place until we can find out who's trying to kidnap me and what happened to the others?" Bickson paused a moment, then pronounced, "I like it. Where's she staying these days?"  
  
"Guadosalam." As soon as it was out of my mouth, Naaga's head immediately shot up, sending her ponytail swinging. Her eyes locked on mine. She didn't like the idea any more than I did. "Okay, so maybe Guadosalam's out too," I amended.  
  
"Wait a minute," the Goer protested. "I know you and the Guado aren't exactly on good social terms these days, but this is probably more important than your personal problems. It's obvious they know who you are, and that means they probably know that the last place you'd hang out is Guadosalam. Therefore, that's the first place we should go."  
  
"You have a point," I admitted. "Unless, of course, they decide that Besaid's too obvious and realize they should look in the *least* likely place first."  
  
"Now who's being the flip one?" I had put my face in my hands, but I felt his eyes on me and I looked up. He continued seriously, "Look, Linna. I can't tell you what to do, and I'm not stupid enough to try. But I think we need to stick together. If you take off, they'll be after you anyway. At least if we stay together, I can protect you."  
  
"You? Protect me?" I snorted. "Somehow I'm not that worried about myself. And just for that, I should leave you here and take the next ferry to--" I stopped. Naaga had her head down again, and I could still feel her shaking inside all those blankets.  
  
I thought about Rin's words on the airship. Him telling me to come to Luca to protect Naaga. I could gamble with my own life, but I'd busted my ass for ten years trying to raise my little sister. No way were some fanatical creeps gonna hurt her just because of some stupid long-dead conspiracy.  
  
"All right," I told him. "Guadosalam it is."  
  
**********  
  
Translation:  
  
sunuh - moron  
  
"Ra lysa yd sa, yht E cdilg dra nywun uid yd res. E cmelat drnuikr cusadrehk yht lid res, E drehg. Yvdan dryd, ra oammat yht nyh pylg uid dra fehtuf." - "He came at me, and I stuck the razor out at him. I sliced through something and cut him, I think. After that, he yelled and ran back out the window." 


	5. Rook

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
And...Miyu's back! Actually, it turns out you're gonna find out a lot about her past, too, just because I kinda like her. Please don't sue me now; I'm almost done with writing the whole story...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 4: Rook  
  
**********  
  
The dark veil felt heavy over my face, and the long robes flapped behind me like sails. I'd snagged them on at least eight branches by the time the Moonflow wharf was out of sight, and although the robes concealed way more of my flesh than my normal skintight blitz uniform, I felt strangely naked without the long boots and gloves. My eyelashes brushed against the gauze of the veil every time I blinked, another strange feeling. I missed my goggles, and especially their sharpening and brightening lenses. My swirled pupils had dialated as far as they could, but it still wasn't enough to see through the dark as well as I would have liked to.  
  
Tysh, how did the Yevonites *wear* crap like this?  
  
Bickson was carrying the sleeping Naaga for the moment, since we'd had to leave our Chocobos at the opposite bank of the Moonflow. She was dressed the same way I was, as a shrouded Yevonite pilgrim. Bickson was wearing the same kind of thing, although without the veil. Naaga's lips were parted and her head was hanging back. Even asleep, she looked afraid.  
  
Naaga was slowing us down, but the dirt path was deserted, so we were able to move more quickly than we otherwise would have. We still had several hours of darkness by the time we reached the grotto that I instinctively knew was the entrance to the town of the Guado.  
  
I'd never been there, but Bickson had, and between his knowledge of the city and the letter I had from Miyu telling me where she was staying, we were able to find the tree-dwelling where the goalie lived.  
  
Unfortunately, she happened to be living with Navara, the captain of the Glories. If you've never met Nav...tysh, I'm not sure whether you're missing out or the luckiest blitz fan alive. Doesn't every family have the perpetually drunk crackpot uncle who rants about taking over the world? That's Nav, except that Nav doesn't need to get drunk. He's a crackpot all on his own.  
  
So I was not looking forward to dealing with him, especially since he knew who we were, which was why I was really hoping that Miyu would be the one to answer the door.  
  
Of course, Miyu didn't answer the door. That would be a clear violation of Murphy's Law, which says that whatever can go wrong will, and at the worst possible time. In this instance, that meant that Nav had to answer the door, and he had to be wearing little Adamantoise jammies, and he had to be in a really freakin' bad mood.  
  
"What do you want?" he scowled, rubbing his eyes with two scrunched brown fists.  
  
Stay silent, Bickson had warned me at least seventeen times on the way over. Don't speak unless you have to, and when you do, be as demure as possible. I'd nodded while trying wildly to translate the concept of "demure" into Al Bhed. It didn't really work. I thought about trying to ask what the hell he was talking about, but it really didn't seem like the time.  
  
"In the name of Yevon, we greet you," Bickson intoned, bowing. His foot shot out from underneath his robes and connected with my ankle. I got the message and imitated him, gritting my teeth.  
  
"We are pilgrims who have devoted our lives to the service of Yevon. We have come to Guadosalam to pay our final homage to Maester Seymour," Bickson continued.  
  
"Our whaa?" I hissed at him under my breath. He kicked me again.  
  
"However, we are weary from the trials of our journey." The Goer shifted Naaga's limp body in his arms for emphasis. "Our sister suffers from exhaustion. In the name of Yevon, we humbly beg for shelter for the night until we are able to continue." He bowed again.  
  
"Oh, you have come to venerate the body of the Maester, nyah?" asked the goalie. Something tricky-looking was gleaming in his beady little eyes. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.  
  
"Yes," Bickson replied simply. "It is our most fervent wish to--"  
  
"Then you know that Maester Seymour's body is in Bevelle!" Nav cackled with glee.  
  
"Hela kuehk, kaheic," I muttered to Bickson, who turned to glare at me.  
  
The Guado was watching me now with those calculating black eyes. "Now, you will tell me who you really are, nyah?"  
  
"I..." Cred. We'd never gotten around to coming up with names, and I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound too Al Bhed. "My name is unimportant," I murmured quickly. "I have sworn not to use it until I achieve spiritual purity through Yevon."  
  
"Which sect of Yevon did you say you belonged to?" he asked.  
  
My mind whirled. In one breath, I spat out, "The Holy Yevon is Our Father and Savior Forever and Ever Amen church." He was staring at me. "It is a rather small group of believers not far from Kilika," I added. Bickson added another bruise to my ankle when Nav wasn't looking. I was gonna have some real trouble shooting when I got back in the sphere. *If* I got back in the sphere.  
  
"Is that so?" Nav was cackling again. "Well, if you wish to venerate a Maester, I will take you to one in the morning. We shall see if he has heard of such a sect, nyah? Oh, he will make me a Maester myself for exposing the treachery of unbelievers, and then I can take over--"  
  
"Navara! What are you doing?" Miyu was standing in the doorway that led to the back of the house, one hand braced against the frame. She was wearing her long white nightdress, but she hadn't taken off the forbidding metal mask she wore for games. The overall effect was eerie.  
  
"Oh, Miyu," Nav laughed nervously. "Haha...just greeting some...pilgrims."  
  
"They are pilgrims?" Her face turned toward us, and I saw her inhale sharply as she recognized Bickson. Quickly, she recovered and said, "Then in the name of Yevon, it is our duty to offer them shelter. They appear to be very tired." She crossed the room swiftly and took my hand in both of hers. "Will you be so kind as to accept our humble hospitality?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, and many thanks to you," I replied.  
  
"Then it is settled. Navara, they may stay in my room for the night and continue on their journey in the morning. Please, follow me." She turned and led us into the back.  
  
When the door was shut behind us, she sighed and asked, "All right, Linna, why have you come to Guadosalam? You must know how dangerous it is for you here."  
  
"Hang on a sec," I replied grouchily. "This thing itches like hell." I flicked the veil off my face and shook my hair out. "We need your help," I told her when I'd finished.  
  
"To what end?"  
  
Bickson took over, setting Naaga down on the bed. "We can't explain everything, but we think someone is trying to kidnap me. The rest of the old Spirals have disappeared. Someone's already come after me, and they almost hurt Linna and Naaga in the process."  
  
"So we came here, hoping we could hang out for a few days until we can figure out what's going on," I continued.  
  
Miyu rested a hand on either side of her mask and jerked swiftly once. It came off, and she settled herself like a bird in a wooden chair in the corner. Her eyes narrowed. "Who do you believe is behind this?"  
  
"The temples," I replied softly.  
  
She gasped and the metal mask clattered to the floor. No one picked it up. "Are you serious in these accusations?"  
  
"Yes," Bickson answered.  
  
"Then you have blundered into the lion's den, my friends," she moaned. "Guadosalam these days is a hotbed. There is much unrest with the death of the Maesters at the hands of the summoner Yuna and her guardians."  
  
"Fryd?!" I almost yelled. Bickson's hand shot out to grab my wrist and pull me down to sit next to him on the bed. Miyu looked around warily, making sure Nav hadn't heard. I clenched my jaw. Stupid, stupid, busting out with Al Bhed like that!  
  
"Yes," Miyu said when Nav didn't fling open the door and demand to know where the green-eyed thing was hiding, "Had you not heard? The summoner, the pillar of Yevon who is supposed to be the most spiritually pure of all Yevon's children, was a traitor. It is said that she and her followers murdered the Maesters Seymour and Kinoc in cold blood."  
  
"Oh, Yevon," Bickson breathed. His fingers slipped away from my wrist and curved into the invisible oval shape of the Yevonite bow. Like it was instinct.  
  
"Why are you so freaked out?" I asked him. "I didn't even know you knew that Yuna chick."  
  
"I didn't," he answered numbly. "But she was a summoner."  
  
He fell silent, and I looked at Miyu, whose expression was equally somber. She said, "You see, Linna...the summoners are Spira's only hope in the face of Sin. Yevon depends absolutely on them. With the marriage between Summoner Yuna and Maester Seymour, we all believed that she would defeat Sin, as did her father High Summoner Braska before her. Yet she betrayed him and Yevon and all of us."  
  
"If we can't trust the summoners...what's left?" Bickson asked, more to himself than to either of us.  
  
"Can you blame her for going renegade?" I shot out before I could think. "How would you feel if someone told you that you had to die just to get rid of Sin for a couple years? You do what you have to to survive."  
  
"But each time we can hope that perhaps this will be the one!" Miyu cried. "I truly believed that Lady Yuna would bring the Eternal Calm. I thought perhaps we had atoned for our sins."  
  
"Atoned for your sins?" I scoffed. "Why are you guys still having trouble with this? It's been a thousand years. What kind of god would punish you for something stupid your ancestors did ten centuries ago? Your Maesters are dropping like flies. Your priests are out to get you. What the hell IS left, Bickson?!" He didn't answer. "Miyu?!"  
  
"Hope," the goalie replied dreamily. "Hope is all we have.  
  
"It is said," she continued, still sounding out of it, "that it is because of the machina that we have not yet been forgiven."  
  
I stared at her. "So that's it. It's all the Al Bhed's fault. Or are you forgetting that the Crusaders use the SAME DAMN MACHINA as the Al Bhed?!"  
  
She snapped back into it like a rubber band, her cheeks flushed pink with anger. "I am not accusing you, Linna! I am attempting to help you, or are *you* forgetting *that*?"  
  
"Look, if you got a problem, we can leave right now." I started to pick up Naaga. "I'll go find the airship. They'll never catch us." My green eyes were glinting. "But they'll track us here. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday soon, those priests'll be knocking on your door, Miyu. What are you gonna do?"  
  
"Linnie, what's wrong?" I looked down. Naaga was rubbing her eyes underneath the veil and blinking up at me. "Why is everyone yelling? Is everything okay?"  
  
"Yeah, it is," Bickson said forcefully, looking at me. "We're all gonna calm down now and figure out what to do."  
  
"All right," Miyu agreed. She took a deep breath, a la Rin. "My apologies. We must deal with the matter at hand."  
  
"So what, exactly, do you propose we do, Mr. and Ms. Brilliant?" I wanted to know.  
  
The Goer sighed and looked out the window into the night. "Talk to Reppi."  
  
*****  
  
It took me a while to remember that Reppi was dead. As soon as that clicked, I spent a while muttering about psychic mumbo-jumbo and pseudo-spiritual hokum and why Moonflow sucks, but it did me no good. Bickson and Miyu were determined to go to the Farplane.  
  
So the next morning, the two of them took a field trip, while Naaga and I sat around the house. And did nothing. Which I hated. The Glory and the Goer, apparently the new arbiters of undercover operations, had decided that being pilgrims just wasn't a good enough cover for us, and that it was too dangerous to even let us out of the house in Guadosalam. Nav was out running around like a maniac in circles around town and revealing his top-secret plans for world domination to anyone who could stop him long enough to open their mouth, so the two of us were alone.  
  
We were sitting in a combination kitchen/breakfast nook that was drastically different from the one we'd been in the day before. Everything in Nav's house was actually carved out of the inside of a hollow tree. The table, as well as the curved wooden benches that slid around the outside of the nook, had literally grown out of the floor. Miyu had left us a plate of food, but it was all Guado stuff, the kind of stringy bread with red beans that only they seemed to be able to digest. A search of the cupboard revealed several varieties of crunchy bugs, but I thought this was more of a Nav dietary quirk than a Guado one.  
  
"Linnie, I can't eat this," Naaga whined, banging a piece of bread against the table. Nothing much happened to either the bread or the table.  
  
"Don't complain. It's better than MY cooking." Now, I decided, was probably not the time to tell her I'd rather try to consume my own right arm. I selected a stick of bread that didn't look particularly congealed and bit off a tiny chunk. "See?" I asked, trying to sound encouraging. "Delicious."  
  
She was still watching me skeptically. I put the bread down, spat the chunk out with flawless aim into the carved wooden trash can in the corner, and sighed. "It ain't working, is it?" I asked.  
  
"Nope," she agreed, setting hers down next to mine and brushing off her hands like she'd just touched something foul. "Why are they going to talk to the dead goalie girl anyway?"  
  
"Hell if I know, Naaga," I answered. "Miyu says the images in the Farplane don't even talk back. Maybe they think she'll send psychic messages or something like that."  
  
"Either way, I think it's stupid! What do they want to do, tell them who killed her?"  
  
"Don't be a twerp. Bickson says the fiends got her," I snapped. Then I stopped. "Fiends never leave a clean kill."  
  
"What?"  
  
I slammed a fist on the table. "Fiends are always trying to create more fiends. I remember this! It was like the only part of biology class I really paid attention to! When fiends attack a human, if they kill it, they always leave a part of the body behind. They think it's a reaction of the Moonflow inside the fiend, that it has to give the prey a chance at being Sent or something. But they never found a body, or even part of one. She couldn't've been killed by fiends."  
  
Naaga's eyes were as wide and round as blitzballs. "Are you sure? What if she became a fiend herself?"  
  
"Even if she became a fiend, she'd still haunt the grounds where her body was. When someone killed the fiend, the body wouldn't disappear. Bickson told us she disappeared on the way to Macalania Temple, right?"  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"So people go that way all the time. I was there like two months ago, and I didn't see any corpses lying by the side of the road. It's too cold to snow most of the time up there, so it's not like the body would've gotten covered over. She'd still be there, so someone would have seen her and reported it so the temple could've gotten someone out there to Send her."  
  
"What happens if someone did Send her?" Naaga asked, starting to poke the bread again. "Or if whoever found her wasn't a Yevonite?"  
  
"If she got Sent, those two fanatics'll be able to see her in the freakin' Farplane. Maybe something in their memories will give them the answer. And why would a non-Yevonite be on the road to the temple?"  
  
"You were."  
  
"Shut up, bihg. If I'd seen a dead body, I sure as hell woulda wanted to get it outta the middle of the road. I'd leave an anonymous note at the Temple or something. No matter how stupid I think Sending is, it gets rid of dead things."  
  
"Linnie?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I think the Farplane's stupid."  
  
"Join the club."  
  
We sat there in silence for a few minutes, contemplating the transience of earthly life and the condition of the breadsticks, and then Bickson and Miyu burst through the door.  
  
"So?" I asked, twisting around in my seat to look at them. "How'd it go? Did you gain any vital knowledge from the spirits of the dead?"  
  
Bickson sunk down on the bench beside me and rubbed his temples. When he looked up again and spoke, his voice was shaking.  
  
"She wasn't there."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
nyah - not a word in either Al Bhed or Old Guado; it's just something Nav says a lot. Don't ask me why. Characters will talk like that if you're not careful.  
  
"Hela kuehk, kaheic." - "Nice going, genius."  
  
"Fryd?!" - "What?!"  
  
bihg - punk 


	6. Warrior

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Kkyaaa. _;; Revise the original estimate--this'll probably be more like eleven or twelve parts. Aaah, I can't do short stories...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 5: Warrior  
  
**********  
  
"I don't get it," I said after a while. This was probably a dense move on my part, but I was really having trouble here. "The Farplane is supposed to show you reflections of your memories of the dead, right?"  
  
"No," Miyu contradicted me from the other side of the bench. "The Farplane shows you the spirits of the deceased--those who were Sent. The fact that Reppi's spirit is not there means that she is an Unsent."  
  
"Can't be," I shot out without thinking. "We figured it out. There's no way the fiends could've killed her, but even if a Yevonite killed her, wouldn't they just say they found her and get the temple to Send her? I thought that killing someone and not getting them a proper Sending is supposed to turn you into a fiend when you die. And what kinda Yevonite would risk that?" Thank you, Miyu, and all your theological lectures. But I still think the Farplane is crap. Don't let them Send me when I die.  
  
"Maybe someone did not want her to be sent," Miyu suggested.  
  
"Or maybe it was a priest that killed her, and he felt like since he was a priest, he was immune to the whole fiend thing," added Bickson.  
  
Miyu glared at him. "Or maybe he wasn't even a Yevonite at all."  
  
The Goer captain glared right back. "Or maybe it wasn't even a 'he.'"  
  
"Or maybe we're gonna sit here thinking up theories until we die! How the hell is this helping us, anyway?" I demanded. "Who cares what happened to Reppi? All I care about is making sure my own personal ass is not on the line here."  
  
"As much as I care about your ass, Linna, there's a larger issue at work here," Bickson said. "Reppi isn't our best lead; she's our only lead. I have a gut feeling that finding out what happened to her is the only way we're gonna find out what happened to the others. And I know for a fact that you *do* care about what happened to them."  
  
"Besides, moving around will help us stay out of the reach of whoever is looking for Bickson," Miyu added reasonably.  
  
"But where are we moving TO, Miyu?" Naaga asked. Her voice sounded like a little kid's, and I realized she'd barely spoken at all when Bickson and Miyu were there. My fists clenched. She shouldn't have to be here.  
  
Miyu turned to face the little shrimp and gave her a long, measured look before speaking. Then she answered, "We're going to Reppi's home."  
  
"You think there might be something there that would tell us how she disappeared?" Bickson wanted to know.  
  
"I do." The goalie nodded. "At the least, it can only help us."  
  
"Except that it wastes time," I pointed out. "Where'd she live, anyway?"  
  
"The same town I am from," Miyu answered quietly. "By the Moonflow. We could be there in a matter of hours."  
  
"So you knew Reppi?" Naaga wanted to know.  
  
"Yes. Not well, but we were acquaintances. It's a small village. We all knew each other."  
  
"That's what we're gonna do then, huh? Ransack the dead chick's house and see if Letty and Jassu and the others are hiding out under her bed?" I asked skeptically. Bickson shrugged. Miyu nodded. "Fine," I sighed. "I'm outnumbered. Let's go."  
  
*****  
  
Dawn had already broken by the time we left. Naaga, who had gotten more than enough beauty sleep on the way over, was walking. That definitely wasn't the word for what the rest of us were doing, though--more like dragging. I was down to the put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other- pause-repeat-pause-repeat mental stage. Aside from the little shrimp, only Miyu seemed to be anywhere other than a complete zombified state--she looked almost awake, and she was walking the same calm, steady, graceful way she always did that drove me completely nuts.  
  
"So am I the only one here who's totally zonked?" Bickson asked casually from behind me.  
  
I slowed down half a beat so he could catch up. "You don't know the half of it, street rat."  
  
"Trust me, I do. Although lemme be the first to admit I don't know how you're putting up with the veil. It's not your color at all."  
  
"And there, babe, you are wrong. Blondes can get away with anything, whereas you will never be able to wear red."  
  
He laughed. "I don't need to wear red. All I gotta look good in is blue, purple, and gold."  
  
"Not to mention a little extra black and blue if ya keep getting on my nerves," I threatened, pretending to roll up my sleeves.  
  
"Touche. Note to self: never insult a chick who can beat you up."  
  
"Ah, you got nothin' to worry about. Maybe the power of Yevon will protect you." He didn't say anything, and I shot a glance after him. "What gives? I say something wrong?"  
  
"Nah. This Yevon connection bugs me, though. I know you don't really get it, but the temples--for people like Miyu, and even for people like me who aren't as serious about it--we were all raised to believe that the temples could do no wrong. They're supposed to be our only hope against Sin."  
  
"But you don't still think they can't screw up," I cut in. "You were the one that told me you were starting to see where the teachings might be wrong and that you didn't really trust the temples and everything."  
  
"Yeah, that's right. I think Yevon's been corrupted lately, or maybe it's always been corrupt. But...ugh, dammit," he swore, pounding a fist into his other hand, "I still don't want to believe they killed Reppi."  
  
"So how do you explain the prayer beads and stuff?"  
  
He shook his head. "I can't. That's getting on my nerves."  
  
"There's something else I can't figure out," I told him. "The Zalitz connection. You told me he deserted a while back. So what was he doing handling my shipment?"  
  
"No idea. Maybe he went back to work. Or maybe someone got him confused with someone else. Those docks are so badly organized it isn't even funny."  
  
"That's what gets me. All those maybes. There are just too many variables we can't even predict here."  
  
"Maybe we'll get lucky and something in Reppi's place'll tell us something," he suggested optimistically.  
  
"That'd be against Murphy's Law, babe. It was pretty convenient that Miyu and Reppi are from the same place, though."  
  
"Yeah, you didn't know that? I get the feeling that they practically grew up together. Reppi mentioned her once or twice, but I gather they had a falling out when Miyu joined the Crusaders. The people around here are known for being pretty strict Yevonites. They would've seen that as a slap in the face--kinda like an Al Bhed becoming a summoner."  
  
"Man. Would your parents freak out like that too?"  
  
He shrugged. "I dunno. Probably not. The way they saw me, if I took off on Crusade or decided to become an Al Bhed specialist or something, they'd probably decide that must be the right path and come with."  
  
"I'm not totally sure what the qualifications are, but I'd say you'd probably already be classified as a serious Al Bhed specialist," I cracked. "So when does your test subject get to meet these mythical parents, huh?"  
  
Bickson rolled his eyes and hefted his bag up higher on his shoulder. "This is like the third time you've asked me in the last two weeks. Why do you keep bringing that up?"  
  
"Chill. You're already panicking like a true commitment-ophobe." There was probably an English word for that, but I didn't know what it was, and he looked like he got the idea. "With the Al Bhed, it's just a thing. Most of us lived in a pretty compact space back Home, and it's always been that way with us. The first thing you're supposed to do when you start going out with someone is introduce them to your parents. It's like a law."  
  
"Probably he's just scared that if you meet 'em, they'll let slip that he's cheating on you or something," Naaga interrupted. The blitzball hit her on the shoulder, not hard enough to rebound. I had to chase after it as it rolled away and zip it back into my bag.  
  
"Children," Miyu said pointedly, turning to face us, "we are here."  
  
*****  
  
Miyu wasn't kidding when she said it was a small town. Even through the veil, I could see the small bamboo huts, smaller and dingier than the bright ones in Kilika and Besaid. No matter what time of day it is at the Moonflow bank, it always seems like sunset. The stupid pyreflies stained the sky with their incessant glow. The rose color just made the pathos of it all stand out even more.  
  
"Swords! Fine steel swords!" I whirled to see a boy, maybe thirteen, trudging toward us with a broadsword that was almost as tall as he was. He was dragging it through the dirt--couldn't lift it, I guessed--and as he got closer, he kept shouting at us. "C'mon, lady, with a fancy uniform like that you need a sword!" he pleaded Miyu. As we got close, he was shoved aside by an old woman with a massive reed basket balanced on her head. "Potions," she cackled, "potions! Never know when life might strike us a blow, do we, dearies? We must be prepared! My lovely potions could save your lives someday, mark my words!" Within seconds, we were surrounded by a throng of people, all waving goods at us. I felt Naaga press closer to me.  
  
Miyu walked with her head held high, her metal goggles firmly in place over her eyes so I couldn't read her expression. No one seemed to recognize her. A group of kids charged past us, their bare feet stained with mud from the banks. The line of her mouth tightened.  
  
Eventually, the disappointed crowd of merchants wandered off when it became apparent that we weren't going to buy anything. When the noise had faded enough so she could be heard again, Naaga spoke. "Miyu?" she asked softly from behind her dark veil. "Where's Reppi's house?"  
  
"Wait a moment." Miyu held up a hand. "It has been so long...it was at the far end of the village. I--"  
  
"What happened there?" Bickson interrupted suddenly. I turned to see what he was staring at. The wall of one of the huts had caved in and was hanging limply in the water.  
  
"That," the goalie said simply, "is--was--Reppi's home." She started toward it and pushed aside the flap of cloth that served as the door.  
  
"Hey," I said. "You know you're just walkin' into her house, right? Isn't anyone gonna stop you?"  
  
A smile crossed her lips, and it wasn't a happy one. "No," she said. "You see they no longer know me here. But even as a stranger, I will not be challenged. They are so...trusting here. So naive about the world beyond this riverbank."  
  
She sounded like she was about to start getting poetic on me, so I brushed past her and stepped into the hut. Through the hole in the wall.  
  
I'd been expecting the inside to look like our hut in Besaid--small, but clean and brightly decorated. I was dead wrong. The place looked like a hurricane had hit it full-force. The furniture--what there was left of it--was a complete shambles of broken and rotted wood. The hammock that I guessed must've been Reppi's bed was in a twisted heap on the ground. There were papers strewn everywhere.  
  
I looked at Miyu. She shook her head, eyes wide. "This is absurd," she breathed. "The custom in this village is to leave the home of a deceased person untouched for seven years. By that time, the moonflow has broken the remains of the wood down chemically and a new home can be built in that location. But it hasn't been seven years. I can't understand why anyone would desecrate the home of a dead woman."  
  
"Unless they were looking for the same thing we are," Bickson said dryly.  
  
"What *are* we looking for?" Naaga asked.  
  
"She kept a sphere journal," he replied. "I remember that, because she used to record on it after every game. That might give us a clue."  
  
"Would she not take it with her, Bickson?" Miyu wondered.  
  
The Goer shrugged. "Who knows? Just look for a medium-sized pink sphere."  
  
I sighed and got down on my hands and my knees to sift through the junk. My right knee hit a weak point in the decaying wood and I nearly went down, but my hands shot out automatically at the last second and I managed to avoid falling completely on my face. The heel of my left hand hit something hard, though, and when I regained my balance I looked to see what it was. A pink sphere was rolling across the floor.  
  
"Hey, this it?" I asked, stopping it with one foot and kicking it into my hand. I nearly fell over again--I'd forgotten that I was still wearing that stupid pilgrim getup over my blitz uniform.  
  
"Looks like it," Bickson replied, taking it from me. "But there's only one way to find out. Miyu, do you have a viewer?"  
  
"I am not in possession of a handheld sphere-viewing device, no. However..." she swallowed, then continued hesitantly, "...the home of my family does contain one or two viewers with which it would be possible to learn the contents of the sphere."  
  
"Great. Which way to your place?" Naaga asked.  
  
Miyu brushed a hand back through her glossy hair absently. "We must be cautious. If my family is not at home at the moment, we will be able to watch the sphere. If they are, however...well, suffice it to say I cannot be certain we will be able to gain entry."  
  
"Why?" Naaga asked. I was halfway through the process of getting up off the floor at the time; I kicked her shin hard enough to throw her off balance but not hard enough so it'd be noticed under my robes. Then I winced internally. Twenty years old and still acting like my kid sister.  
  
But Miyu actually answered the question, with the same wistful kind of directness she'd used when she first told me why she got into blitzball. "Years ago, I fell in love with a blitzball player," she said. "Linna can tell you the story sometime, if you care to hear it. But my parents did not approve. When he and I became engaged...well, my parents were scandalized, of course. I was thrown out of the house. I stayed at the inn with him, and we managed to get by while we were scraping up money for a wedding. But...when he died..." she trailed off, then continued, "...I left without a backward glance. It's been more than three years since I've been here. I doubt I'd be welcomed."  
  
"Is there any other way we can get a viewer quickly?" Bickson wanted to know.  
  
The goalie shook her head. "No. No. Chances are they will be out on the docks at this time of day. We should be able to pass undetected." She held out her hand for the sphere and Bickson handed it over. "I'll lead the way."  
  
She stepped out primly through the door--I went back out the way I'd come in, figuring what the hell--and started down the dusty row of huts. She stopped at the opposite end of the village, near the gate we'd come in through and gestured to one of the houses. "This," she told us, "is mine." I watched her as she pushed aside the fabric flap that served as a door. It seemed almost like she steeled herself before she did it.  
  
Unlike the Besaiders, these people didn't have laced-bamboo windows, and since all the walls were intact in this hut, it took my eyes a while to focus in the relative darkness. When they did, I realized that the fact that there were no gaping holes in the walls was the nicest thing that could be said about the place. Hammocks and shields and jewelry were strewn everywhere. There wasn't even a floor here, just dry grass spread over swept dirt. In fact, there was more dirt inside the house than outside it on that dusty road. I wanted to scream. I didn't want to see this squalor. I didn't want to be here. I was supposed to be back in Luca in a clean, cool blitz sphere, not here surrounded by filth and stench and Moonflow.  
  
I thought all that even before I noticed the people.  
  
There were five of them. Two were ancient--an old man with twisted fingers and a long beard and an equally old woman. Both were so thin and pale they could've been skeletons. Sitting next to them were three little kids of varying sizes, two girls and a boy, all of whom had the same shiny dark hair and somber eyes.  
  
"I am home," Miyu whispered. 


	7. Daredevil

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I own Reppi, her family, the Spira Spirals, and while I'm at it, Naaga and the entire village this story takes place in. I'm pretty sure I don't own much else right here.  
  
And while I'm rambling, big thanks to all the reviewers, especially the ones like Pierson and miaowne and Tuna-chan who keep coming back for more. Rock on, blitz fans.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 6: Daredevil  
  
**********  
  
Their heads swiveled towards her in unison, like mechanical dolls. For a while, no one said anything, and I felt like busting out with a cheery, "Well! Isn't this nice!" knowing perfectly well that it wasn't nice, and it wasn't gonna be. I just felt this need to break the silence.  
  
I guess they did too, because right away the little buggers started whispering to each other until finally they couldn't contain it and blurted out, "Miyu's home! Miyu's home!" But it didn't have the cadence of normal speech, not even the weird fast way most Yevonites talk in their own language. It was monotonous, dead, so that despite all the years I'd spent slumped over a desk in the front of an Al Bhed English class, it took me a little while to figure out what they were saying. Creepy.  
  
"Eiko...Yomi...Takeo?" Miyu's voice was creaking strangely, like it might crack up an octave. "It has been so long..." She took a step toward them; they shrunk back. Puzzled, she ran a hand up to her face and removed the glittering Crusader's mask that covered her eyes. "You see? It really is me." Her hands reached out as if by their own will. The kids didn't respond.  
  
"Why have you come?" the old woman asked harshly.  
  
Miyu turned, naked pain covering her face suddenly. Because of that mask and our height difference, plus the calm way she always acted, I always thought of Miyu as older than she really was. As she stood there staring, though, she looked like a little girl. "I...I must ask a favor of you," she said shakily. "It is a matter of life and death. We must use a sphere viewer."  
  
She was speaking in the same distant, polite way she always spoke. If I didn't know her I wouldn't've even heard the quaver hanging in her voice. That wasn't the way she got answered. "And why should we help you?" demanded the old man. "Why should we do anything for you after you ignored our will and then ran off to fight alongside the filthy Al Bhed? Yevon will punish you for your sins, child."  
  
Filthy Al Bhed. Filthy. Me. Naaga. Our parents. Everyone who'd died in the attack on Home. Filthy.  
  
I felt my body start to shake.  
  
"Please," Miyu begged, "you don't understand--"  
  
"Three years, Miyu. Three years you've been gone!" the old woman cried, like she hadn't heard. "Look around you! We are starving, child, and the blame is yours. We will not help a traitor to our family and our Yevon."  
  
"No? Then maybe you'll help me," I burst out. Miyu turned to face me, and I saw the tears hanging in her eyes. I could feel Bickson's eyes, too, and Naaga's eyes and the eyes of those skinny kids and their parents boring into me. I took a deep breath and tried to hold back the explosion.  
  
"Look," I said finally, when I had counted to ten a couple times and was pretty sure I could keep from screaming. "I haven't known your daughter all that long, but I like to think I know her pretty well, and she didn't run away because she was trying to rebel. Everything she's done, she's done because she loved someone and because she wanted to destroy Sin. And that ain't a crime, okay?  
  
"You know what is, though?" I asked. "Sending us outta here without letting us see that sphere. Miyu's not kidding when she says it's life and death here. Us not seeing that sphere means that there are four missing people who might not ever be found. If you can't do it because you love your daughter, do it because you're gonna have to wake up every morning for the rest of your lives and look out at that Moonflow and know you killed four people who didn't deserve to die."  
  
They were absolutely silent. The kids weren't moving, and it was creeping me out. The two old people sat there, staring at me and looking tired.  
  
"Come," Miyu said quietly, turning and putting an arm around Naaga's shoulders, "let us go."  
  
"Wait," the old man croaked almost silently. Miyu turned back. Slowly, as if the words were wrenching themselves from his throat, he choked out, "You may use the viewer."  
  
"Thank you," Miyu said so quietly I could barely hear it, and then she went back into motion immediately. Quickly, she crossed the tiny room to the far side, where there was a dusty little sphere stand. She knelt to brush it off and set Reppi's pink sphere in.  
  
"Is it still the same one?" she asked. The old man nodded. "Then it'll be black and white, but at least we'll be able to see it," she said over her shoulder to us, pressing the button.  
  
The screen flickered.  
  
*****  
  
It kept flickering until an exasperated Miyu finally got Bickson to kick it, after which point it worked fine. A couple seconds later, we could see the black-and-white image of a woman. She was tall--in person, she would've towered over me--and strong-looking, with dark hair kinked up in dozens of long braids and skin that I got the impression would've been the same chocolate-brown color as Miyu's eyes.  
  
"Yep, that's her," Bickson muttered, mostly to himself.  
  
The goalie was still on her knees, looking at the viewer. "It appears to be divided into tracks, which I would assume are the entries," she announced after a while. "I will skip to the last track so that we may learn what her final words were."  
  
The sphere spluttered in protest and then flickered again. When it calmed down, Reppi was standing there again in the black-and-white uniform of the Spirals.  
  
"I can't believe it!" the image griped. "They weren't kidding! I got that order from the Maesters themselves the utha day sayin' I gotta disband the team!"  
  
"This is it," Miyu decided, rocking back on her heels to watch.  
  
"The other guys were pretty confused," Reppi continued from the sphere. "They didn't get why the Maesters would botha with a minor-league blitz team. And a'course I couldn't tell 'em what it was about. I always knew it'd get those guys' attention, but I neva thought it'd come ta this.  
  
"See, I'm sure this is about the team name. The Spirals seems like a pretty dumb name for a blitz team, right? But I knew what I was doin' when I chose it. My momma was a summoner, and my big brutha was her guardian. They both died up there on Gagazet tryin' to bring the Calm. We've had two more Calms since then, and everyone thinks this is gonna be the last one. But it isn't.  
  
"There's somethin' the Temples don't want us to know, somethin' those big-wigs up in Bevelle aren't tellin' everyone. There's never gonna be an Eternal Calm. Sin's gonna keep comin' back, and meanwhile summoners and guardians and everyone else are gonna keep dyin'. It's just a big spiral--a spiral of death, like. And that's why I called the team that. 'Cause I wanted those fancy Maesters to know that someone knows the game.  
  
"So I know what I'm gonna do now that I'm outta the sphere. I'm gonna go on my own pilgrimage, just like my momma did. Go to all the temples, see all'a Spira while I still can. And then, I'm gonna go to Bevelle and tell those Maesters--"  
  
"Who's in there?! Open up!" demanded a voice at the door.  
  
*****  
  
"Oh, holy Yevon!" the old woman gasped. "Who--"  
  
"Open up and no civilians will be hurt!" the voice yelled again. "We'll break down the door if you don't come out!"  
  
"What's going on, Linnie?" Naaga wanted to know.  
  
I was still mentally trying to translate the word 'civilians,' which is not something they teach you in Al Bhed English classes. "I don't know, kid," I hissed back once I'd made the connection with 'lejemeyhc'. "But keep your mouth shut. Whatever it is, it ain't good."  
  
"What should we do?" Bickson asked Miyu.  
  
The goalie squared her shoulders and fixed her mask back on her face. "Go out."  
  
"Are you crazy?" Naaga asked. "They sound scary!"  
  
"I'd rather they scare me than them," Miyu answered, gesturing at the family. The three children were wide-eyed now, clutching their mother like scared birds.  
  
"Mother, father," she said to them. Her hand passed lightly over the hair of each of the kids. "You three." She stood up again. "As soon as we leave, I need you to run. Please, do as I say. I have a feeling that it is not safe for you here. Return when the threat is gone."  
  
They nodded silently. The old man scooped the littlest up in his arms, and the other two took their mother's hands. Miyu turned her face toward the door and called, "All right, we'll open the door and come out quietly." Calmly, she started walking. I found Naaga's hand inside the long sleeve of her robe and took it, leading her out. Bickson followed behind her.  
  
As soon as we made it out into the dusty path, I heard a cry. My eyes were still adjusting to the light, and I blinked wildly, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I still couldn't see by the time someone roughly grabbed my wrists behind my back and forced me to the ground. I felt someone's knee boring into my spine, and I choked on the mouthful of dust as my face hit the dirt.  
  
"What the hell is this?!" Bickson demanded. "You said no civilians would be hurt if we opened the door!"  
  
"You're not civilians, you're traitors!" the voice shot back. I finally figured out what was going on and looked up from my new friend, the ground, to see that the other three were bound in the same way I was. The people holding us were Guado, dressed like guardians.  
  
Filthy blue slime.  
  
"What are the charges?" Miyu asked, still sounding completely calm. I wanted to kick her. How the hell was she still chilled out at a time like this?  
  
"Treason against Yevon," the Guado holding her answered curtly.  
  
"What's treason?" Naaga asked, confused by another word that our English books never bothered with.  
  
"Silence, brat! It matters not!" her captor roared, shaking her roughly.  
  
My fists clenched involuntarily. "Get your hands off my sister!" I screamed at him with more intensity than I'd thought I had.  
  
"You are not in a position to be giving orders to anyone, *pilgrim*," he taunted me.  
  
"E cyet," I yelled back, kicking violently back and up into the shins of the Guado holding me, "kad ouin ryhtc uvv so cecdan!" His knees buckled and he went down, moaning slightly. I launched myself toward Naaga and got hold of two fistfulls of her captor's spiky hair as I shot past. The guardian and I both went down hard on the dirt, and Naaga scrambled free.  
  
I recovered first and jerked the robes off, leaving myself in just the blitz bodysuit. Behind me, Naaga was doing the same thing, and Bickson had just punched his Guado in the face. Blood spurted from the delicate blue nostrils. Miyu whirled around, breaking the guardian's hold on her, and took off running.  
  
"Where the hell are you going?" I shouted after her.  
  
"Come on, while they are still down!" she cried back. "They will have reinforcements waiting--we cannot afford to dally here!"  
  
I didn't get the whole dallying thing either, but I got the point. "Naaga! Bick! Let's bail!" I yelled to the other two. They followed. I scooped Naaga up in my arms, and we ran for dear life.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
lejemeyhc - civilians  
  
"E cyet, kad ouin ryhtc uvv so cecdan!" - "I said, get your hands off my sister!" 


	8. Coward

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I think I own most of the exotic locales in this chapter--with the obvious exception of Bevelle. I hear Yuna and company can actually enter the city in FFX-2, but since it hasn't been released yet in my neck of the woods, the description is based on my imagination and the few details I can glean from FFX.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 7: Coward  
  
**********  
  
"Miyu, where the hell are we going?!" I yelled as we tore down the dirt path out of the village back toward Guadosalam.  
  
"In all honesty, Linna, I do not know!" she called back. "We must find a place to hide. Then we may plan a course of action!"  
  
"Has anyone ever considered," Bickson threw in as he caught up to me, "that none of us has any idea what we're doing?"  
  
"Oh, NOW you listen to me!" I exploded. "You couldn't'a acknowledged I was right back in, say, Luca?!"  
  
"Linnie...Linnie, I'm scared," moaned Naaga, burying her face in my shoulder.  
  
"Shut up!" We were in the forest now, sloshing through mud and brambles. Naaga and my gear bag were both heavy. I kept tripping, which hurt like hell. I was wearing only the bodysuit now and my feet were bare and probably bleeding. The trees felt like they were closing in on us. I shot a glance back over my shoulder to see if the guardians were still following us and nearly went sprawling. Naaga whimpered.  
  
"This way!" Miyu called from up ahead. I looked up to see her pointing through a tangle of roots on the ground. "Through this tunnel, there used to be a monastery!"  
  
"Oh, great, EXACTLY where we want to go!" I shouted.  
  
"It's abandoned! We played there as children!" she explained. As I watched, she ducked down onto her hands and knees and crawled through the dark hole.  
  
"We don't have a choice, do we?" Bickson asked, huffing a little as we slowed down.  
  
I closed my eyes and heard Guado shouts from behind us. "Nope," I agreed, crouching and setting Naaga down too hard. Immediately, she scrambled through.  
  
Bickson and I looked at each other and heard the battle cries as they got louder and louder. "They're getting closer," he said.  
  
I nodded roughly. "I think they're onto us. Better get out of here."  
  
"See you on the other side." With that, he flattened himself on the ground and pulled himself into the tunnel.  
  
I looked down and couldn't see light at the end of the tunnel. The voices were almost behind me now. There was no more time to hesitate. I shoved the gear bag through the hole, put my head down, and slithered into darkness.  
  
*****  
  
I surfaced about a minute later root-scratched and dusty as hell, but alive. I was in a clearing in the woods, completely covered by a canopy of the kind of huge trees that make up the Forest of the Guado. The ground here was more grass and less mud, though, and at the back of the clearing was a wooden building. I could see where several trees had been carved out and then joined by more carved wooden archways to form a large circular structure.  
  
"This is the temple," Miyu said. "We can't stay here long--they know this place as well as I do and they will find us. But they do not know that I know of this place, and so we have some time in which we can rest and plan our next move."  
  
"How long do you think we have?" asked Bickson.  
  
Miyu shrugged elegantly. She was the kind of person who did everything elegantly. "I have no way of knowing. Possibly a few hours."  
  
"No time to waste, then," the Goer decided, starting for the main door of the temple. Like the houses in Guadosalam, the tree-building actually did have a hinged door. He swung it open and took a step in.  
  
"Weird," he murmured to himself as we entered. "It doesn't look all that dusty. You're sure no one's still here, right?"  
  
"I cannot imagine why anyone would be." Miyu looked around the place. Bickson was right; there was no dust anywhere. The inside of the temple was basically a simplified version of Nav's house--entirely wooden without the bright colors of Guadosalam. I wasn't exactly sure what a Yevonite monastery was supposed to look like, but I figured only about ten people could live there at a time. The tiny main room led straight into a tiny chamber where a table and a few hard benches were carved out of the wood--probably the dining room/living room, I decided. The only other room was a small alcove with shelves built into the walls; the Yevonite version of bunk beds. I didn't see a kitchen or a bathroom anywhere--maybe the priests did that stuff outside or something.  
  
Naaga was thinking along the same lines I was. "No food?"  
  
I sighed, resigning myself to a life of starvation, and started digging around in my bag for the rest of my uniform. Getting the boots and sleeves on again felt good.  
  
"Ahh, travelers," an ancient voice creaked behind me as I was slipping on my goggles. We all jumped in unison, Bickson cracking his head on the low ceiling. When I recovered and turned around, there was someone standing there.  
  
If I'd thought Miyu's father was ancient, he was still a toddler compared to this guy. The man coulda been a museum piece, with a shiny bald head and enough wrinkles to keep a laundromat busy for days. He looked like he was all skin and bones, and right away I wanted to tell him to start eating or die already.  
  
Immediately after I took all this in, I saw that he was wearing the robes of a Yevonite priest.  
  
"Oh, sir, our humblest apologies!" Miyu gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth in horror. "We did not mean to intrude!"  
  
"It is all right. I knew you would come." His voice, which had probably been somewhere in Bickson's range when he was younger, had fluked up the octave in old age and sounded like a bird's now. Or maybe he'd always sounded like a drug-infused little girl.  
  
"You knew?" Bickson asked skeptically.  
  
The priest-guy nodded. "I foresaw it. I know, too, what you seek, and I believe I can help you."  
  
"Oh, really," I scoffed involuntarily. "Great. Just what we needed, a deus ex machina! All right, old man, what are we seeking?"  
  
"Linna," Miyu whispered to me out of the corner of her mouth. "Have respect, please."  
  
"It is all right," the geezer repeated, waving one bony hand in a gesture of dismissal. His eyes were a pale, filmy blue, like someone had dropped milk lenses into them. "I anticipated this. Linna is not among the believers in Yevon's truth."  
  
"Shut up, grandpa," I snapped. "What do you know about truth, and what do you know about me? With those eyes, I'd bet my last paycheck you can't even see me."  
  
"There is a speck of dust exactly 1/32 of an inch in diameter located a quarter of an inch to the right of your upper lip," he croaked. Involuntarily, I scraped the back my gloved hand across my face and watched the dust speck unstick itself and fall onto the table, where it bounced twice and stopped moving. I scowled.  
  
"I foresaw that too," he said smugly.  
  
"Look, sir, as great as it is that you've taken it upon yourself to improve my friend's oral hygeine," Bickson interrupted, "we're in something of a hurry. You said you can help us."  
  
"I can." The old man still looked like he was talking only to me, and it creeped me out. "In answer to your question, Linna, you are seeking your missing comrades. I have news of one of them."  
  
"Which one?" Naaga wanted to know. I snorted. I knew she was hoping it'd be Jassu. Her and her stupid crushes.  
  
The old, wrinkled lips slithered into a dry smile. "Naida."  
  
I rolled my eyes and snorted again. "Where was she, huh? Vacationing in Besaid? Cheating on Aniki with some tanned blitz hunk?"  
  
He ignored me. "She was last seen in St. Bevelle."  
  
"Do you know what she was doing there?" Miyu asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Do you know why she disappeared?" That was Naaga.  
  
"No."  
  
"How long ago was this?" was Bickson's question.  
  
"Two days."  
  
"Great. Wonderful. Totally useless." I threw up my hands in disgust. "Where's the part where this is helpful again?"  
  
"Think about it, Linna," said Geezer. "Put the facts together in your mind. Naida is in St. Bevelle, which means the others are probably there as well. You also know that St. Bevelle was Reppi's ultimate destination. Does it not make sense to go there?"  
  
"Wait a minute. How do you know Reppi was headed for Bevelle?" Bickson demanded suspiciously.  
  
Geezer smiled enigmatically. "I told you. I have foreseen everything."  
  
No one said anything for a minute. Then Naaga piped up, "I don't like it."  
  
"Me neither, kid," Bickson agreed.  
  
"But you have no choice," Geezer insisted. "If you stay here, the guardians will find you. I can take you to Bevelle safely. It's your only lead."  
  
Miyu sighed. "He is right; you do know that."  
  
"So what are we supposed to do when we get to Bevelle?" I asked. "Go up to every random stranger we see and say, 'Excuse me, but have you seen an obnoxious Al Bhed diva wandering around dressed like a hooker lately? Oh, great, which way did she go?'"  
  
"You will find her," the priest said. "I am sure of it."  
  
"I'm not," Bickson shot back. Then he paused. "But I can't think of anything else to do. I vote we go."  
  
"Waiddaminute. C'mere a sec." I grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the corner. In a low voice, I hissed, "Bick, what the hell are you doing? Don't you remember all those prayer beads? Don't you think it's weird that we were able to find the sphere so easily even though it was obvious someone had torn the place apart looking for it? Isn't it a huge coincidence that those Guado happened to show up just as we were watching it? I keep getting the feeling it's all a set-up."  
  
"It doesn't matter," he replied without hesitation. "No matter what anyone says, the fact is the old guy's right. All the signs are pointing to Bevelle. If you have any brighter ideas about where we should go next, go ahead, share 'em with the class." I kept my mouth shut, because I didn't think he'd want to hear that I thought we should just go home and recruit new players for the Aurochs. "Either way, someone's probably still out to get me," he continued. "And we know they're willing to go through you or Naaga or anyone else. The only way we even have a shot is to keep going."  
  
Naaga. Couldn't let them get Naaga. I sighed and cracked my knuckles. "Fine. Fine. We'll go."  
  
We walked back over to the group. "Have you decided?" Geezer asked, like he already knew what the answer was.  
  
"Yeah," I replied. "Next stop--Bevelle."  
  
*****  
  
"Uhm...Sir Priest...please forgive me for my disrespect, but isn't this a bit...well, unusual?" Miyu asked skeptically, looking at the three shiny new motorbikes with eyes as big as watering cans. The gleaming chrome looked weird against the solid brown wood of the temple's back room.  
  
"Desperate times require desperate measures, Miyu! Have no worries--I'm a priest. Now get on!" the geezer chirped happily from the back of the first bike. He grabbed the handles, making the kind of overkill "vrrm, vrmm" sound that always used to drive me nuts when idiotic maintenance workers on lawnmowers did it at Home.  
  
"But it's a machina!"  
  
The filmy blue eyes seemed to sharpen as they turned towards her. "You are a Crusader. You are familiar with Al Bhed machina technology, are you not?"  
  
"Yes. But...a priest?"  
  
The old man shrugged, which made him look even more like a bird. "We have no time to waste. This is the fastest way to get to St. Bevelle. Get on."  
  
"Are you sure they're safe?" Bickson was kicking the treads and looking skeptical.  
  
"He probably ain't, but I am," I answered. "I've used them before. They'll save us a day or two of travel time. We could be in downtown Bevelle in a couple hours."  
  
"Is Bevelle far?" Naaga asked.  
  
"It is about to get a lot closer, child," Geezer told her. "Now let's get going." With that, he revved the engine one more time and sped out of the clearing--there was a back way, I noticed--and into the forest again. Shrugging, we followed.  
  
Big mistake.  
  
*****  
  
It took us about two and a half hours to get from that point to Bevelle. Miyu, who was apparently completely impervious to the dark cloud of tension hanging over her head and pouring figurative rain all down her uniform, would later describe the trip as "wonderful." She was lovin' the machina thing--it still threw her that a priest was endorsing it, but I guess she figured that as long as it was there, she might as well enjoy it. And Naaga had more experience with machina than Miyu, which meant she got to drive--which I never let her do at home, since she'd already failed her driving test three times since her sixteenth birthday. Jubilant over her good fortune, she sang loudly and off-key the whole way.  
  
Bickson and I weren't that naively cheerful about the whole mess. He was even less comfortable with the machina idea than Miyu, and he definitely wasn't used to going that fast. Sometimes his arms were clamped around my waist so tightly I had trouble steering, and a couple times we almost crashed into trees because I kept having to turn back to see what the hell he was looking over his shoulder at. A lot more trees and nothing, it turned out. We were all getting paranoid these days.  
  
Geezer, for his part, didn't seem to have much to say. He still hadn't told us anything about himself, and when I asked him where in Bevelle he'd seen Naida he suddenly got a hazy memory and became so completely befuddled he didn't speak until we were at the city limits.  
  
"We dismount and enter the city. I will take you to a place I know of where you will find your answers," he told us cryptically, jumping off the motorbike and flipping the kickstand down with his toe like he'd done it before.  
  
"No one's going to stop us?" Bickson asked. "We're riding machina and traveling with two Al Bhed and no one's gonna think that's weird?"  
  
"Do not worry. All will be well," answered Father Non-Ambiguous.  
  
Saying that Bevelle is bigger than Luca would be a serious understatement. Bevelle is to Luca what Luca is to an ant farm. The whole place is gleaming with purple and green and gold, with towers that scrape so far into the sky they look like they might hit the sun and glassy red walkways crisscrossing the city everywhere. And in the center of it all is the temple--syh, the temple.  
  
I was pretty unconcerned with all this at the time, though. My thoughts were running more along the lines of, "this is crazy. We're never gonna find Naida, let alone Letty and Jassu and Zalitz. We're running around with some wacko religious crackpot whose most defining feature is his incredible ability to see small quantities of dirt. There is no way in hell any of this is going to work the way it's supposed to."  
  
Which is why I really wasn't all that surprised when I felt the cold metal barrel of a gun being leveled into my back and the ground rushed up to meet me for the second time that day.  
  
*****  
  
This time there wasn't much I could do about it, because when I looked up I was surrounded by a ring of--surprise!--more people with guns. Each of which was pointing at one of our heads.  
  
"What is this?" Miyu choked from the ground.  
  
"This, Madame Crusader," one of the guards replied coldly, jabbing her with the barrel of the rifle he was cradling in his hands like he knew how to use it, "is an arrest."  
  
"E *dumt* oui ed fyc y cad-ib," I muttered to Bickson.  
  
"An Al Bhed, eh? Stand up slowly, filth," another spat into my ear. "Any sudden moves and I'll turn that pretty yellow hair of yours into a wig for my daughter's doll, got it?"  
  
"It's not yellow, it's *blonde*," was what I shoulda said, but of course you never come up with that stuff until later. What I actually said was closer to "urk" as he grabbed my hair and yanked hard. I scrambled for footing and managed to bear enough of my own weight to avoid being snatched bald-headed.  
  
"You lied to us!" Miyu cried at Geezer, who was standing there motionlessly with a smile on his withered little mug.  
  
"I did," he acknowledged like he was proud of it.  
  
All around us, people were still moving. Priests, chanting quietly to themselves as they walked. A group of blitzers spinning balls on their fingers and trying to act macho. Little kids with their mothers, clamoring for ice cream. Thousands of people, and not one of them acted like they cared or even noticed that right in the middle of their city, four people were getting arrested for absolutely no reason.  
  
"All right," the guard ordered when we were all on our feet, "March!"  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"E *dumt* oui ed fyc y cad-ib." - "I *told* you it was a set-up." 


	9. Sufferer

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
If you're sharp, you might have noticed that I changed the part titles; I think Overdrive modes worked significantly better than Overdrive names from FFX.   
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 8: Sufferer  
  
**********  
  
Those shiny red brick paths are like the walk from the locker room to the blitz sphere--even a short distance feels like a hundred miles. In Bevelle, though, it's not the anticipation that makes it seem like that; it's the dread.  
  
The gun in my back was starting to get old, but the guard-person looked like he would probably be pretty good at firing point-blank into my spinal cord, so I didn't waste my breath complaining. No one else said anything either, so we had this eerie silence hanging around us like a fog, and all around us were the regular noises of the city. Once I tried to see Naaga over my shoulder, but right away I heard the meaningful click as the guard tapped his finger on the trigger and I kept walking. With every step I kept thinking, this guy has a kid. They probably all have kids. These are just regular guys, and if this one shoots me he's gonna go home and eat his wife's pot roast and tuck his daughter into bed. Somehow it just didn't seem right.  
  
It was easier to think about what was going to happen next to him than to me. I kept thinking about that until I could almost smell the pot roast all the way to the temple.  
  
I couldn't say for sure where we went. I remember going into the temple and the fact that the fear kicked in right as those huge shining doors shut behind us and I knew there was no way out. After that, the only things left in my mind are darkness and walking and apprehension like you wouldn't believe.  
  
There was a long, long staircase down, just like there had been a long, long staircase up on the outside. Then there was a maze of hallways like tunnels that must have stretched on for a mile. The only sound was the clicking of our feet on the floor. My back ached where the gun was pressed into it.  
  
Finally, after what seemed like forever, the guards finally stopped and I could make out the silhouette of a huge pair of doors. "Through here lies judgement," one of them intoned. I nearly choked trying to hide my laughter until I realized he wasn't kidding. He seriously wanted us to go in there, and he wasn't going in with us.  
  
He let go of my wrists and backed away. Like machina dolls, the other guards did the same thing. And one by one, Miyu, Bickson, and Naaga stepped forward, rubbing their wrists, and just stared at that huge door.  
  
I started to size up our chances of making a successful break for it, but they were pretty damn slim. All five of the guards were armed to the teeth, and Geezer was still standing there smugly, looking like he could run pretty fast for help if he had to. But there was something strange about them. For some reason, they all seemed...afraid.  
  
"Move! Your fate awaits you!" the head guard-person yelled, gesticulating wildly with the barrel of his rifle. I decided not to ask any questions. Whatever it was, we were going to meet it one way or the other.  
  
*****  
  
Inside, it was even darker than it had been in the hallway, but right away I got the impression that there was a high ceiling. Our footsteps were echoing. The floor sounded hard, like stone or something. Every time one of my heels clicked on it I felt another stab of fear. Pang. Pang.  
  
There was grime caked on my goggles. I could have taken them off and cleaned them, but I got the impression that the room was almost pitch dark, and I reasoned that bad vision was infinitely better than no vision. Still, I was in a bad mood already, and stumbling around like a mole didn't help matters in the slightest. "Dammit," I muttered to whoever was next to me, possibly Bickson, "what gives here? Isn't this supposed to be the biggest temple in Spira? Can they not afford incandescent lighting or something?"  
  
And like magic--or a lightswitch, if you're like me and don't happen to come from a completely backwards and religiously maniacal society--the lights came on.  
  
Actually, just one. Waaaaay above our heads. I blinked and craned my neck upward toward the light at the top of the room and immediately figured out that "room" really wasn't the best word. "Cavern" was. Or anything that implied a really freakin' big space with a high balcony hanging almost overhead. What we were seeing was basically a spotlight. It was focused on the dead center of the balcony, on an old man in long robes.  
  
By this time, I'd had about enough for one day of really old men in stupid clothing, but at least I recognized this one. "Hey, Miyu!" I whispered, poking her in the side. "This is that Mika guy that made all those boring-ass speeches at the tournament, right?"  
  
"Grand Maester Mika," she corrected me in a whisper, sounding awe-struck. Slowly, she removed her mask and bowed until I thought her body would break in half from bending so far. "The leader of all Yevon!" she hissed to me as she came back up.  
  
"Oh. Okay then. Great," I muttered unenthusiastically. I planted my hands on my hips and didn't bow. I'd expected Naaga to do the same thing behind me, but when I looked at Bickson, he was standing up at full height with his head high. He was not bowing even to his own Maester.  
  
"Welcome. Welcome to the High Court of Yevon," Mika's tinny little voice said. It probably passed for a yell for him, but even the echo effect didn't strike fear into my heart. He just didn't look all that awe-inspiring, even when you had to stare up at him. I noticed he didn't bother bowing either--to any of us. "Are you prepared for your sentence?" he asked.  
  
"Our sentence?" Bickson repeated. "For what?"  
  
Mika harrumphed, like that should be obvious and he was irritated that we were wasting his time like this when he could be watching blitz or taking his medication. "For your crimes."  
  
Bickson sighed. "Yes, I think we all comprehended that part. What crimes?"  
  
"Treason against Yevon." We musta looked pretty blank, because he added, "There are those things which should not be known. Which should not be *made* known. Were you not given ample warning that your actions would not be tolerated?"  
  
"But...is this not the High Court of Yevon?" Miyu asked. "Will we not receive a fair trial before the Maesters?"  
  
The old man laughed. "No."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"There are three reasons. First, because you are a Crusader. You are one of the fallen. You and your brethren were, if you will recall, *excommunicated* from the holy sight of Yevon. Second, because you are content to consort with the Al Bhed. In doing so, you have shunned Yevon once again, and therefore you will receive no mercy from a court which serves Yevon." Oh, great, pin it all on the green-eyes. Third..." he spread his arms out wide. "...this is all that is left of the High Court of Yevon, and all that is left of the Maesters. Justice will be done."  
  
"Waiddaminute. I don't think you're getting this, old man," I interrupted. "The only things I wanna know are where my players are and why someone's trying to kill Bickson. If you got some reason why that stuff's a crime, hey, dish."  
  
"Impudent child!" He was obviously trying to thunder, but it just wasn't working for him. "When I disbanded the Spirals years ago, I thought it was clear that they were to be forgotten!"  
  
"It's true, ain't it?" It hit me. "That's why you disbanded the team, because you wanted to cover it up. That stuff about the Spiral of Death Reppi said--it's all true. It has nothing to do with anybody's crimes. Sin's never gonna go away, and there's nothing you or the summoners or anyone else can do about it."  
  
He was laughing, a high, cold sound. "You speak the truth, Al Bhed. Sin dies and is reborn. One summoner buys us a few years, but in the grand span of time, the Spiral of Death is endless. Yevon has never been anything more than a device to give the people hope and allow the power to remain absolute and where it should.  
  
"Reppi was aware of that. She challenged Yevon, challenged us, and for that she paid with her life. As," he smiled, "will you."  
  
"So is it true that you set us up too?" Naaga asked. There was a kind of childish desperation in her voice, and I realized she was stalling for time. I wasn't sure if she got all the stuff about sentences and disbanding, but she knew a bad thing when she heard it. "The sphere and all?"  
  
"Yes. When you fled Luca, it became obvious that you would not succumb to inelegant techniques in the vein of petty murder and kidnapping. It became necessary to lure you in. It became necessary to show you the truth." He sounded like some kind of small bird. Why did all the Yevonite geezers these days have such girly voices? "Feel that triumph, pitiful wretches, of being the only ones who will ever know that truth," he snarled. "It dies with you."  
  
"You would kill us?" Miyu asked. Even in the half-light I could tell she was shaking--hard. I got the feeling she was doing the same thing as Naaga, just wasting time, trying to delay the inevitable. "Your Grace...we can help you if you spare us. We can be of service to you."  
  
"How?" If anyone else had said it, like Seymour, it would've sounded smug, like something said by a cat that has a mouse caught between its paws and wants to toy for it for a while before dinnertime. This cat didn't have a smug bone in his body, however, so it had the same high-pitched monotonous whining sound as everything else he'd ever said.  
  
"We have seen things! We know things!" the Crusader cried. "We are useful to you because we have seen the faces of Spira and of Yevon from the surface, and therefore we may know things you do not. For example, did you know that many of your priests use machina technology?"  
  
"Yes, of course." He laughed, like it was funny.  
  
Miyu paled. "But...the teachings! The teachings say that machina are--"  
  
"The teachings are worthless, child," he cut in smoothly. His voice dripped sarcasm. "Even your dirty green-eyed friends here could have told you that. You, in fact, should have known it; as a Crusader, you yourself abandoned the sacred tenet of holy Yevon that dictates that such machina is unclean and should never be touched. The teachings are designed to keep the masses quiet, to let them think that there is hope for redemption. Yevon is a pure, beautiful myth."  
  
"But that can't be true," Miyu protested. "Yevon is a tradition that stretches back one thousand years! All the teachings...all the temples...you...what was it all for, your Grace? What have we spent our lives believing in?!"  
  
"Nothing," was the cold reply.  
  
In that moment, I watched Miyu's face crumble. It seemed like everything she'd sacrificed, everything she and the man she'd loved and all the hundreds of thousands of others over the ages had believed in and fought for and died for, had all shattered into dust at her feet.  
  
Bickson was totally calm.  
  
I wondered what was going through his head and tried to come up with an analogy that would give me some idea. What would happen to me if someone told me Home had been built by the Maesters, or that Al Bhed really were the cause of Sin and the Yevonites were right after all? What would it be like to finally learn the truth? But as hard as I tried, I couldn't understand it, and I was watching Miyu crumple, and after a while I couldn't stand it anymore. "Enough of this crap already!" I burst out. "What's our sentence, old man?!"  
  
The wrinkled lips parted again in a tired smile. "The Via Purifico."  
  
Miyu's eyes widened and she sank to her knees like she'd been transfixed. "Oh, dear and holy Yevon," she whispered. "No, your Grace, please, no..."  
  
"What's up with her?" I hissed at Bickson. "Why's she freaking out?"  
  
For the first time, Bickson had the same expression on his face. "The Via Purifico. It's like a prison." He was talking in short, clipped thoughts, like he was chipping his words out of a block of ice. "I've heard the stories...they say it's hell, Linna. Infested with fiends. We'll be unarmed. There'll be no food. We'll die there, slowly. No one's ever made it out alive."  
  
"Then how do they know what it's like?" Naaga asked, tugging on his glove.  
  
"Shut up," he muttered, beating me to the punch.  
  
"That means you don't know."  
  
"Hey, look, punk, it's a legend! I don't know where it comes from, okay, but it's true!"  
  
"Ahm...excuse me, your Grace," a timid voice said from the doorway. It was a woman in long green robes, bowing like Miyu had. "The Lady Summoner Yuna is here to see you."  
  
"ENOUGH!" Mika bellowed tinnily. "You waste my time! Guards! Seize them!"  
  
Immediately, the doors flew open and the guards rushed back in. There were more of them this time, and within seconds we were completely surrounded. A heavy pair of gauntleted hands wrapped themselves around my waist. I flailed wildly, trying to get a hit in, but the guards were all so heavily armored that even bashing them with my Golden Arm only succeeded in bruising my knuckles.  
  
Miyu was hanging limply in one of the guards' arms, like she couldn't--or no longer wanted to--fight anymore. Her eyes were hanging half-open. Another guard grabbed her legs and the two of them began carting her off.  
  
"Linnie!" Naaga wailed. "Linnie, please, help me!" She was being dragged, and as I watched, one of the guards picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like a rag doll. Her fists beat helplessly against his back. "Linnie!"  
  
"Naaga!" I screamed, thrashing desperately to get free. The arms around my body only tightened. I twisted my torso around and clawed at the guard's face, but the armored helmet prevented me from doing even the little damage my glove and Golden Arm would have cut into his face.  
  
"Linnehmmmm!" Naaga's voice was muffled suddenly as a glove clapped hard over her mouth. She cried out in pain and my muscles almost spasmed at the sound. "Rnnneeehm!" she was still crying as they carried her away. "Ssssydddjmmmsmmmm!" Cyja sa. Save me.  
  
But I couldn't save her.  
  
Next to me, I heard a grunt of exertion as Bickson slammed a foot with all his might into the chest of one of the guards. He was being pressed in a hammerlock from behind, but he was still kicking like he was treading water in Baaj. I caught a glimpse of one wild blue eye as I strained to face him; his face had the look of a wild animal that knew it was about to die.  
  
I couldn't say why. It was trite and stupid and like something out of one of Naaga's lame romance spheres. Maybe I had that same feeling like a beast that sensed its own impending death. But for some reason, nothing in the world seemed more important in that split second than touching Bickson's hand.  
  
I'd spent more than ten years playing blitzball. Thousands of hours spent in that sphere. Countless passes, countless shots, countless tackles. In all that time, I'd never pushed my muscles as far to the limit as I did straining to reach him. In the same instant, we both quit fighting to survive and started fighting for one last tiny contact.  
  
His fingers must have been less than an inch from mine when they dragged him away.  
  
"Bickson!" I heard my voice screaming. "Bickson! E muja oui! E fyhdat du damm oui...Bick...hu!" But he was already gone.  
  
I remember the pain and the red-hot pressure behind my eyes as tears sloshed inside the rim of my goggles. I remember the sound of beastial screams that must have been mine, although I wasn't making them of my own free will. I remember lashing out at anything I could reach, losing control of my limbs and my mind, fighting with everything I had left in me.  
  
After that, I remember nothing.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Cyja sa." - "Save me."  
  
"E muja oui! E fyhdat du damm oui...Bick...hu!" - "I love you! I wanted to tell you...Bick...no!" 


	10. Solo

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
My birthday's in two days. Just felt like mentioning it. I own all the stuff no one else owns. Please don't sue me.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 9: Solo  
  
**********  
  
Nothing until I awoke in total darkness.  
  
The first thing I was aware of that made any sense was the pain in my head. When I put my fingers on it, they felt wet. I thought about this for a sec, then licked my fingertips. They tasted metallic, and that was the point where I figured out that: a) I was alive, b) I was bleeding, and c) I wasn't exactly thinking clearly.  
  
Not long after that, I started remembering other important stuff, like: d) I was in the Via Purifico, e) My little sister, my boyfriend, and my best friend had all been carted off, and f) I was probably gonna die. And I still had no idea what had happened to Jassu or Letty or any of the others, but I was willing to bet it'd been something like this.  
  
I could barely see my hand in front of my face, but I started groping around, taking an inventory of what I still had. I was still dressed all the way--at least that was a plus, because it meant that chances were they'd left me alone for the most part. I was still wearing goggles, which had little round blotches of saline on them. I took them off, spat in them, and rubbed it around until they were clear again. I checked myself briefly for major bruises or broken bones, and except for whatever the hell that Zuu egg on my head was, I seemed to be in one piece. Even my gear bag had been plopped next to me, which in my opinion was pretty thoughtful.  
  
"Ugyo, Linna, desa du kad ed dukadran. Ruf yna oui kuhhy kad uiddy drec uha?" I muttered to myself. I needed a plan. Somehow, I had to find Bickson and the others. That meant that somehow, I had to get outta there. And *that* meant that, somehow, I had to stand up and start looking for an exit.  
  
I got to my feet, swaying a little, and established that I could stand without keeling over. So far so good. I was feeling kinda proud of myself until the fiend showed up.  
  
It was pretty big, as fiends go. Not that I could actually see this or anything--I got this mainly from the decibel level of the noises it was making and the stench of its breath, both of which were considerable.  
  
Obviously, if it works once, there's a decent chance that it might work again, and I'd gotten rid of fiends before by heaving blitzballs at their eye sockets, so I tried it. Immediate bellow of annoyance.  
  
Score--blonde blitzing bombshell: 1. Smelly thing: 0.  
  
I caught the ball on the rebound and zinged it back again. Three hits later, I was bouncing it off my heel like I was back in the sphere. It was an automatic reflex that I didn't even have to think about, and I didn't want to think about it. I was remembering sprawling out on the front steps of Macalania Temple and waiting to freeze. I was also remembering lying in the fetal position for three days on the airship when Home had been destroyed. If those two experiences had taught me anything, it was that sitting around waiting to die is really stupid. There's no point in killing yourself when there are so many things in the world perfectly willing to do it for you. You might as well get up and live already.  
  
Last time this'd happened, the fiend had eventually given up and kerplunked its way in the other direction, where there weren't people heaving heavy sports equipment at them. However, this one was a little smarter, and at some point it musta figured out that if it tried charging while the ball was on its way back toward me, I would flee for dear life and stop pelting it.  
  
I wasn't expecting that at all and woulda ended up with a large set of footprints on my back except that I happen to be a serious Tackle Slip vet. I literally dove outta the way. And actually, that wouldn'ta been good either if I hadn't shifted my weight hard to one side halfway into the dive, when I realized that I was about to land facefirst in a very hard and unforgiving wall.  
  
I landed maybe three feet from the wall, and I couldn't see it when I hit. I had to figure that anything that lived down here could probably see in the dark better than I could, but maybe it was worth a shot.  
  
"Rao, oy cdibet csammo sysy'c puo!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Oui fyhd y beala uv sa? Lusa kad ed, bihg!"  
  
Worked like a charm. Not, of course, that I would've lived to know that if the fiend's breath wasn't bad enough to smell from ten feet away. The thing put its head down and charged straight toward me. And...okay, given my estimate of its size and the speed at which it was traveling...not yet...not yet...NOW!  
  
I jumped higher than I'd ever jumped in my life.  
  
*****  
  
You wouldn't think fiends could run into walls, but apparently they can, and that thing took one serious KO. I hadn't even landed by the time the Pyreflies started fizzing up out of the carcass. When I did, the immediate area was lit up with Moonflow and I looked around, trying to see what I could figure out about my surroundings in the twenty or so seconds I was gonna have.  
  
I expected a lot of darkness, a lot of muck, a lot of fiends. I did not expect another woman to be standing there. As a result, I jumped again, probably even higher this time. She didn't jump. She was just standing there, watching me. The first thing she said when I landed was, "Want some real light?"  
  
"Yeah." Instantly, there was a clicking sound and then light. When I could see again, I got my first good look at her. She was really, really tall, so I was looking maybe at the middle of her shoulder. Her skin was dark brown, and she had looooooong braided black hair. She was dressed in a loose pair of gray pants and a simple white blouse that told me she was probably a Yevonite. Her open-toed sandals and fingerless gloves, though, were pure blitz. What struck me more than anything, though, was that I knew her. I'd seen her before.  
  
"Hu fyo," I muttered to myself. "You're Reppi."  
  
"Yep, that's the name," she agreed cheerfully. "You got one?"  
  
"They call me Linna when they're not spitting at me," I replied.  
  
"Well, Linna, I dunno how in Spira you know my name, but ya look like ya know what'cha doin' and I think I know who you are. Why don't you come with me? I got a camp set up not far from here."  
  
Her long legs started pumping, and I jogged to keep up. "You got a camp in here? Where the hell are we?"  
  
"Lord, child, you don't know that? We're in the Via Purifico." She was still going waaay too fast, and the light was getting farther and farther ahead of me. I sprinted.  
  
"Waiddaminute, what are you doing in the Via Purifico?" I demanded. "You're supposed to be fiend meat."  
  
She chuckled. "Man, Naida told me you were crazy, but I nevah expected this. I been livin' down here for *years*, girl."  
  
"No way."  
  
"Way."  
  
"*Man,* that's weird." But it would definitely explain a lot--why Bickson and Miyu hadn't seen her in the Farplane, for one. I chewed over that one for a couple minutes until I could see light in the distance. Then something else hit me. "Is Naida down here?"  
  
"Well, obviously, Linna."  
  
Tysh, speak of the devil. By then, we were at the light, which turned out to be a pretty big camp fire. It was in the center of a rough triangle made by three large stones, on one of which a tanned, buff-looking guy was perched as he waved the end of a long stick in the flames. And standing next to it was Naida, as smug as ever, brushing her long half-bang out of her face. She smirked. "Where did you think I'd ended up, Zanarkand?"  
  
"More like the nearest shopping mall," I scoffed.  
  
"Whoa. Another one, huh?" said the guy on the stone. He was wearing turquoise-and-gold overalls, and he had the long hair and rough, bronzed look of a sailor.  
  
"Yeah, another one," I answered him. "It's Zalitz, yeah?"  
  
"You got me pegged, dude. Want a marshmallow?" He swung the stick in a wide arc, nearly hitting me with the dripping hunk of white fluff, which was still shooting off medium-sized flames.  
  
"Mebbe later," I said.  
  
"All right." I looked at Reppi, who was standing with her arms crossed, looking thoughtful. "Seems to me," she continued after a sec, "we're gonna need another rock here. Naida, you wanna go find one while I talk to our new roomie here?"  
  
Naida opened her mouth to protest, but something got the better of her and she whined, "fine!" before flouncing off. Reppi settled herself down on one of the stones and motioned for me to sit too. I plunked myself down, dropped my gear bag like a ton of bricks on the ground next to me, and--after firmly establishing with Zalitz that no, I definitely did NOT want a marshmallow--waited to see what the goalie had to say.  
  
*****  
  
"So I guess you figured it out, huh?" she asked after a while.  
  
"Yeah. We saw the sphere and everything."  
  
"Who's 'we'?"  
  
I ticked them off on my fingers. "Me, my kid sister, Miyu, and Bickson."  
  
"So they don't have Bick yet, right?"  
  
"Uh-uh. They got him. I just don't know where."  
  
"Rumor has it there's anutha part to the Via," Reppi said. "What we're in now is the Maze of Sorrow. Darkness, starvation, and loadsa fiends. Somewhere else, though, there's supposedta be a connection ta the Bevelle sewer system. Could be he's there."  
  
"It isn't as if we'll ever know, though," Naida informed me, flouncing back with the rock, which she arranged herself on delicately. "There's no escape from the Via Purifico."  
  
"Naida, oy dfed, that's incredibly stupid," I shot back. "There's a way in. There's gotta be a way out."  
  
"Yeah, dude, but how ya gonna find it?" That was Zalitz. I glanced at Naida to see if she knew what "dude" was. She didn't or couldn't help me out, so I assumed it must be like Reppi's "girl." "Reppi's been here for years and she doesn't know where it is. And if she can't find it, there's no way we can."  
  
"Wanna bet?" I wasn't feeling confident at all, but one of the few blitz tricks I picked up from my mom was to always look like you were on top. Doesn't matter if it's BS--if you act like you know exactly what you're doing, other people will believe it. "Where are we in the Via? Is it just a big endless wasteland?"  
  
"Unh-unh." Reppi shook her head. "We got a pretty rough circle where we are here. Here, Zalitz, gimme one'a those sticks." He passed it over and she brushed herself a little pile of ashes from the fire into a shallow rectangle on the ground. "Okay. You turned up here," she told me, pointing to the far edge of the circle. "Place's...ehh, maybe a half-mile in diameter. We're about in the center. The fire keeps the fiends away."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"It's not like we made it by rubbin' two sticks tagetha, girl. That's magic fire."  
  
"Waiddaminute. How the hell are you guys coming up with magic fire?" I demanded.  
  
"This baby." Zalitz hurled a plastic rectangle about the size of a checkerboard at me. I snagged it out of the air and looked it over.  
  
"Okay, I'm still not getting how this makes fire," I told him, feeling dumb.  
  
"Dude, haven't you seen one of these before? It's called a sphere grid," he explained, like he was telling a four-year-old. "Whenever you beat a fiend or something, it leaves behind those little sphere marbles, ya know? You can use those to learn abilities and magic and stuff."  
  
"This isn't the best," Naida added. "It's a portable one, one Reppi happened to be carrying when she left her home. The better ones are larger and made of stone. As it is, though, it's all we've got."  
  
Reppi took over again. "My brother was a guardian. He and my momma taught me that magic fires keep away fiends. So before I left, I made sure I knew how to cast Fire."  
  
"But you weren't using fire to light the way when I ran into you, right?" I asked.  
  
"'Course not. We got machina fa' little stuff like that." She took something out of her pocket and showed it to me--a tiny portable flashlight. "Turns out Naida had a coupl'a these on her. They come in handy. The fire's just for fiends and cookin'."  
  
"Okay, so I got how you keep fiends away. How'd you eat?" I asked.  
  
Naida shuddered. "This is...unpleasant."  
  
"Not as unpleasant as starvin', child," Reppi told her sharply. Then she turned to me. "I've been eaten' fiendmeat." I started to ask the question and she cut me off. "I know, I know, they up and disappear when ya kill 'em. So ya can't kill 'em. Ya gotta weaken 'em enough with magic and stun spells where they can't move, and then ya cut the meat off. It's not so bad cooked."  
  
"It's absolutely disgusting," Naida muttered out of the corner of her mouth to me.  
  
"Anyway, I'm not done yet," Reppi remembered, banging the marshmallow stick on the ground for emphasis. "There's one other thing that might be important. On the other end--" she marked an X on the opposite side of the circle from where I'd come to "--there's a weird thing on the ground. A kinda platform."  
  
"A platform?" the Al Bhed merchant repeated. "You never told me about that!"  
  
The goalie smiled enigmatically. "Ya never asked. I dunno what it is," she continued, "but I think it's a machina, and none'a us knows anything about 'em."  
  
"Waiddaminute, Naida's Al Bhed," I protested. My head hurt.  
  
Naida glowered at me. "Linna, dear, I lived in the Calm Lands. My knowledge of machina is highly limited."  
  
"See, I knew that, which is why I didn't wanna say anything," Reppi told her. "You know anythin' about machina, Linna?"  
  
"Kinda-sorta." I tilted a hand back and forth in the international symbol for kinda-sorta. "I got slightly less than no clue how anything works, but back Home my sister and I were so broke half the time I had to learn to fix all our appliances myself."  
  
"Good enough. Wanna see whatcha make'a it, then?" Reppi asked.  
  
I got to my feet. "Bring it on, Repster. Bring it on."  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Ugyo, Linna, desa du kad ed dukadran. Ruf yna oui kuhhy kad uiddy drec uha?" - "Okay, Linna, time to get it together. How are you gonna get outta this one?"  
  
"Rao, oy cdibet csammo sysy'c puo! Oui fyhd y beala uv sa? Lusa kad ed, bihg!" - "Hey, ya stupid smelly mama's boy! You want a piece of me? Come get it, punk!"  
  
"Hu fyo." - "No way."  
  
oy dfed - ya twit 


	11. Avenger

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Wai! FFX-2's finally out. Yeah, I know, I thought it'd suck too, but it's actually not terrible. Blitzball's back, Bickson's back, Miyu's back, Rin's back. One uncool thing, though: Linna's not. Her character design has been used for a supporting character called Nhadala (anyone else think there might be a good explanation like this? Maybe Linna changed her name and moved back to Bikanel...) Anyway, despite this rampant suckiness, X-2 is very yay, and you should all go buy it. Woo.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 10: Avenger  
  
**********  
  
"Awright, machina queen," Reppi said to me a couple minutes later, "take a look."  
  
I was looking at a dark, slightly raised platform on the ground. It was roughly diamond-shaped, with smaller diamonds at each point, and I knew exactly what it was.  
  
"Hey, guys," I announced, "this is a little something I like to call a teleport platform."  
  
Simultaneous blinks all around. Finally, Zalitz put in, "Uhm...question? What's a teleport platform?"  
  
"How are you not getting this, oy lnadehc?" I demanded, flinging my arms out. "What did you think those elevator pads at the hotel in Luca were, decorative rugs? Ya step on it and it moves ya from one place to another, get it?"  
  
Zalitz shrugged and stepped on it. Nothing happened. "I'm not going anywhere," he noted.  
  
"Maybe she's finally cracked," suggested Naida smugly.  
  
I was starting to get defensive. "Okay, so it's broken. No problem. Lemme just take a look here." I got down on my knees authoritatively like I knew what I was doing.  
  
Looked at it. It looked like a teleport platform. So far, so good.  
  
Poked it. Nope, nothing doin'.  
  
Poked it again, just to make sure. Behind me, I heard Naida groan.  
  
"No need to worry. I got everything under control. I'm a professional here." I told three lies in one breath, but all three of those crazy clueless non-machine-geeks visibly relaxed. Okay. Now I just had to figure out what was wrong. I had a hunch that if Reppi was right, this platform was the only way in and out of this room--the guards must've broken it on their way out, knowing I'd know what it was and how to use it.  
  
I crawled on my hands and knees in a small circle around the platform a couple times before--lo and behold!--I figured out the problem: one of the corners was *jammed.* It had been literally wedged underneath the section of stone floor its base had been carved out of.  
  
"So I'm guessing no one has a pocket knife or anything sharp like that, right?" I grunted after trying unsuccessfully for three minutes straight to get the edge outta the ground.  
  
Collective rustling sounds as everyone rummaged through his or her pockets. After a couple seconds, Reppi sighed with frustration. "Nothin'."  
  
"They took my knife when they threw me in here," Zalitz told me. "All I have on me is a can of board wax."  
  
"Just a moment." I looked back at Naida and saw her set her makeup bag on the ground. "Let me see...my lipsticks...eyeshadow...cream foundation...eyelash curler...compact...nail file..."  
  
"Great!" I shoved a hand in between the two sides of the zipper and snatched the nail file outta the bag. Naida squawked, but by that time I was already leaning over the corner of the platform with the file jammed toward me in the crack. Nothing moved. I stood up, leaned the bottom of my heeled-boot-clad foot against the file, and stepped on it like I was flooring the gas of a machina jet and fiends were chasing me.  
  
"My file!" Naida howled as it snapped in half. But the edge of the platform was free.  
  
I brushed myself off. "Okay," I instructed the others, "in a couple of seconds here, I'll probably disappear. Don't freak, and don't touch the pad. If it's okay, I'll come back soon and you can go through. If I don't come back, figure out who's the most expendable and send them through." Bracing myself, I stepped on the platform.  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
"Yf, fryd dra ramm?!" I exploded, getting off and kicking it. "Fung ymnayto!"  
  
"Yc ysicehk yc dryd ec, E ryja cdnuhk tuipdc ypuid dra megameruut uv ed fungehk," cut in the Al Bhed merchant coolly.  
  
"Oui cilg," I shot back. "What's wrong with this thing?"  
  
"Dude, how are we supposed to know? We don't even know how it works." Zalitz was starting to talk in the same petulant tone as Naida, and it was getting on my nerves.  
  
"Okay, this is what'd be happening right now in a perfect world. I get on the pad." I was demonstrating now. "A little lighted arrow appears with this zinging sound, and I step on the corner of the direction I wanna go in to make the arrow change directions. Then I step on the arrowhead, and I'm catapulted wherever the next platform in that direction is."  
  
"Ya don't even have an arrow, though," Reppi pointed out. "Somethin' else must be wrong with the platform."  
  
"Yeah, but damn if I know what. I don't even know what these things run on. Electricity? Batteries? Human souls? What?"  
  
Zalitz asked, "You're, like, totally 100% sure it's a machina, right?"  
  
"Pretty sure. And that means the problem could be anything. If they took one part outta it, it might not work. We'd be completely screwed." I was starting to get really frustrated here. At this rate, I was definitely never gonna see Bickson and the others again, even if they were alive. I wound up and kicked the edge of the platform again, harder, like I was shooting the winning goal of the Yevon Cup tournament.  
  
The platform upended itself and toppled backwards end-over-end, finally stopping flat a couple feet away. It left behind a platform-shaped depression, maybe four inches deep, with a round hole in the middle about eight inches down from the surface. Inside this hole was an open glass jar. As we watched, a single Pyrefly fluttered out of the jar and into the air.  
  
Reppi was the first to speak. "These things are runnin' on Moonflow," she said, sounding awed.  
  
"It seems that way, doesn't it?" Naida agreed. "The guards must have emptied the jar before they went away and left just enough Moonflow so they could get back. When they put the platform back, they jammed it under the ground by mistake, or perhaps just to make sure we couldn't escape if there was any Moonflow left."  
  
"So we need some more Moonflow, dudes," was Zalitz's opinion. "But where are we supposed to get it around here?"  
  
"Where are we supposed'ta get it?" Reppi grimaced. "We're eatin' it, Zalitz. We get it from the fiends."  
  
*****  
  
"So how do you propose we do this, Reppi?" Naida asked about a half hour later. We were sitting on the rocks around the campfire again, trying to figure out how to bottle a fiend's Moonflow.  
  
"Lemme think," the goalie said slowly, chewing a marshmallow. "We've gotta kill the fiend ta get the Moonflow. But if we kill it all at once, there's not gonna be any way anyone can get enough'ta fill up the jar. So we're gonna hafta hold it still and kill it slowly."  
  
"Hey, if you were killin' me slowly, I don't think I'd hold still," Zalitz put in. "We'll have to find a really small fiend so someone can hold it down."  
  
"You seen any small fiends around here, boy?" Reppi interrupted him. "They're all huge. There's gotta be a better way than makin' someone ride it like a buckin' bronco."  
  
"Do we have anything that could be used as a net or a trap, something like that?" asked Naida.  
  
Reppi thought for a sec, then shook her head. "Zilch. Can't think of anything that'd work anyway."  
  
Zalitz laughed. "Why don't we just bust out there, look intimidating, and demand that it hold still so we can kill it?"  
  
There was silence for a minute, then Naida burst out into a long peal of laughter. Reppi was looking thoughtful again, though. "Y'know," she said, "it's crazy, but it just might work."  
  
"What are you talking about? You trippin'?" Zalitz asked, looking startled--possibly by the rampant cliche. "Dude, I was just kidding!"  
  
"I'm not "trippin'" here, child." Reppi pulled out the sphere grid and ran a finger over it. "Wait...wait...here!" She jabbed a nail into one of the unfilled holes. "This is a skill called 'Threaten' that does just that. It'll make a fiend hold still! If someone uses that, the others can attack it, and we'll just have one person snatch the Moonflow up as it comes out!"  
  
Mass blink as we all tried to figure out whether she was serious or not. She didn't crack up, so after a while it dawned on us that she really wasn't kidding.  
  
"Dude," Zalitz said solemnly after a minute, "that is the craziest thing I've ever heard."  
  
"It might work, actually," Naida told him. "The only problem, as I see it, is that no one is even remotely near Threaten on this sphere grid." I raised an eyebrow and she answered the question before I could ask it. "The nodes must be activated in order; you can't skip around on the grid. It would take days, possibly weeks, for any of us to be able to learn that skill."  
  
"Not with this." Reppi took a sphere out of her pocket and held it up so we could see it. "A teleport sphere. It'll let anyone learn the skill right now."  
  
"Who?" Naida and Zalitz asked at the same time.  
  
"We're definitely gonna need the fastest person ta collect the Moonflow," Reppi decided, looking pointedly at the Al Bhed merchant--who just happened to be faster than almost anyone in the league except possibly a couple of Guado. "I'm the only one can use Fira, so I gotta stay a little ways away so I can scare the thing off if anythin' goes wrong. That leaves one'a you two."  
  
Zalitz looked at me. "Look, dude, I know I worked on the docks and everything, but I'm not all that strong. If I Threaten the fiend, you'll be okay to attack it."  
  
"You're kidding, right?" I laughed. "You're talkin' suicide. I've never even been in a real battle."  
  
"I dunno. You were pretty cool with that tough guy back there," Reppi told me. "Maybe you got what it takes. Blitz and battle aren't so different, y'know? My brutha did both too."  
  
"But I don't know magic or anything," I protested.  
  
"You don't need magic, child. I'm the mage here. All ya gotta do is swing a sword around. That's the easy job."  
  
"But I don't know how to use a...screw it. You're not gonna listen to me, are you?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Okay." I sighed. "I'll do it."  
  
The goalie shot me a toothy grin. "Great." Then she turned to the others and said, "Y'all take a load off, hear? Linna's fixin' dinner tonight."  
  
"Whaa?"  
  
"You're gonna hafta learn to fight fiends anyway, and we gotta eat. Plus, ya gotta have a couple'a spheres to be able to learn the tricks you'll need to do this. Might as well get it all done at once."  
  
She had a point, and the only way out looked like it was through that teleport platform. Even if it wasn't, I'd probably have to fight through a bunch of guards to see the other side of the temple walls. If I wanted to get out of the joint alive, I was going to have to do this.  
  
There was no better plan than to do or to die. "Lemme see this sword of yours," I said.  
  
*****  
  
When I'm not being held captive and left to die by crazed pseudo-religious fanatics, I work out eight or nine times a week. I can bench-press more than I weigh. From all the shooting and passing I do, both my upper and lower body are stronger than pretty much any other woman's in the league, and most of the men's. But I'm not that fast and I'm not that agile, and the only sword we had--a rusty hunk of junk Reppi had picked up next to the skeleton of a previous inhabitant when she'd showed up--was designed for people like Tidus who were. That meant that no matter how hard I swung, it didn't pack enough of a punch to do much good, and I was too inexperienced to recover from a strike quickly.  
  
I found this out during my first real battle, in which I fought--if you can call it that--something that Reppi later told me was called a One-Eye. I probably coulda figured this out if I coulda seen it for two-tenths of a second, but as it was I never got a good look. The sword was awkward, too, which didn't help. I kept waving it around experimentally, hoping I'd get better at it, but I needed time to train that I just didn't have.  
  
I tried to tell her that. "Reppi, I can't use this," I said. "If I had a week, I could learn, but there's no way..."  
  
"You don't have a choice," she answered harshly. "A blitzball won't draw Pyreflies from a fiend. It has to be stabbed. There's no other way."  
  
As usual, she wasn't gonna listen. "All right." I straightened myself out, realized belatedly that I had brought my gear bag with me, and set it down, cursing. Then I gripped the hilt in both hands. "Ur, famm. Ev E's clnafat, E's clnafat. Drec ec y fycda uv desa," I said to myself. Then I turned to Reppi. "Okay, put out the fire. I'm ready."  
  
She didn't say anything else to me. "Watera!" she called instead, startling me out of my wits so I nearly dropped the sword. While I was freaking, she waved one hand in the air and a deluge of water shot out of it and into the torch, leaving us in total darkness.  
  
And then, we just waited. Like sitting ducks.  
  
My goggles were half-broken and I was getting only dim light, but I was able to make out shapes by the time the first fiend came.  
  
It wasn't as big as the one I'd fought when I first showed up in the Via, and it was floating. It also had one giant eyeball that was gleaming faintly inside my goggles, so it wasn't that hard to pick out. I could feel the air on my face from the flapping of its leathery wings. The stagnant air was warm and dry, like the wind in Bikanel.  
  
The thing dove at me. Involuntarily I yelled, startled, and lunged out of the way. It dive-bombed again and I threw myself on the hard ground and rolled.  
  
"Whaddaya doin'?! Get up and fight!" Reppi yelled.  
  
I grunted and jumped to my feet. The thing swung toward me again and I slashed blindly. It swooped up and out of my reach--well, duh, Linna. When it flung itself toward me again, I yelled and leapt forward as high as I could. It ducked under me and I landed hard on my knees. The sword jammed point-first in the ground and broke.  
  
This was not doing anything for my headache. I groaned. "Reppi! The damn thing snapped! What the hell do I do?!"  
  
I couldn't see her, but I could definitely hear her. "Improvise!" she shouted.  
  
"Yeah, some help you are," I muttered bitterly as I groped around on the ground for the sword point, nearly slicing my hand on it in the process. Then I found my blitzball in the bag, jammed the broken edge into it, and hurled the whole thing at the fiend.  
  
It fell to the ground, and Reppi immediately jumped out and carved it up with a knife. I scooped to pick up the spheres it had dropped. The last I saw of it was the single bloody eyeball leering at me before it rolled into the darkness.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
oy lnadehc - ya cretins  
  
"Yf, fryd dra ramm?! Fung ymnayto!" - "Aw, what the hell?! Work already!"  
  
"Yc ysicehk yc dryd ec, E ryja cdnuhk tuipdc ypuid dra megameruut uv ed fungehk." - "As amusing as that is, I have strong doubts about the likelihood of it working."  
  
"Oui cilg." - "You suck." 


	12. Dancer

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Hi, nice people! You're all enjoying the story, and all you Americans had a good Thanksgiving, and none of you people are going to sue me for this, am I right? Good.  
  
Oh, yeah, and Linna's blitzball-sword weapon thing is pretty much like the one Wakka uses in FFX. It's used primarily as a long-range weapon, and it's good for fast or airborne fiends. I imagine it'd pack a serious punch in the blitz sphere, too.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 11: Dancer  
  
**********  
  
There's almost no meat on a One-Eye, but Reppi had some food still preserved and we skinned the wings. They tasted like chicken, if you screwed your face up hard enough. Zalitz, who had announced repeatedly that after years of hardtack he'd eat anything, scarfed down all the internal organs we didn't need to keep the thing alive until we could get it down with such gusto I quickly lost the ability to watch him without wanting to hurl. We left just the single eyeball and the center of the body to prevent the fiend from going Moonflow before we ate.  
  
Naida showed me how they used sticks to skewer small chunks of fiend meat and roast them over the fire. She called this a "shish kabob," and said that the Yevonites cooked that way over their fires because they didn't have automatic stoves or microwaves. Reppi still had the leather canteen from her pilgrimage, which she filled from the little rivulets of water trickling down the rock walls. And so we were able to eat, if not a meal fit for a king, at least enough to survive.  
  
Zoom in on me, now that this is all done. I was just sitting there, minding my own business. I jammed a stick in one of the raw hunks of fiend meat Reppi had cut up and held the end in the center of the fire. The flames were a brilliant bloody red, and I was thinking about the way Home had burned like this too. That was the first time I'd had to fight fiends. I was thinking about pulling Naaga out of the ashes of the apartment where we'd spent our entire lives.  
  
I wondered what it was like for the Yevonites--what it had been like, I corrected myself as I remembered the look on Miyu's face. What did it mean to have something to believe in? What was it like to pray and feel like someone out there might listen and help you? If I'd thought it would do any good, I woulda prayed that Naaga and the others were all right.  
  
But I didn't, so I didn't.  
  
"So, Linna," Reppi's voice startled me and I jumped. The meat was burned black by that time. I yanked it out and waved it around furiously, trying to clear the smoke. She continued like nothing was going on. "Naida told us a little 'bout you, but I wanna hear your story."  
  
I shrugged and blew on the meat. Fiend stir-fry. "I'm a blitzer. Besaid Aurochs. LF. Back Home, I was a street rat."  
  
"Just out of curiousity, you understand...what was it like to live at Home?" Naida asked.  
  
I blinked at her. "Whaddaya mean, what was it like? You never lived there?"  
  
She shook her head. "No. Not everyone's parents are blitz stars and engineers. I lived most of my life in the Calm Lands."  
  
"What was that about her parents?" Zalitz asked.  
  
"Nosy little punks, aren't ya?" I snapped. They were still looking at me like they wanted something, so I sighed and started explaining. "My mom, Amirel, was a blitzer for the Psyches before I was born. My dad was an engineer. He was working on some renovations for the blitz sphere at Home when he met my mom. They've been dead for ten years, though." I popped the chunk of meat in my mouth. "This is lousy."  
  
"You get used to it," Reppi told me. "What about Home?"  
  
"Okay." I rocked back on my heels and put some more meat on a stick. "The desert. Picture a big metal dome with ten metal cylinders arond it. A compound, y'know? And outside it's not great, but inside...the whole thing is shiny metal and colored lights. It's like stepping into another world--kinda almost like Guadosalam. Our apartment had a whole sill of hydroponic plants, and my sister and I rigged up blue and green lights so we felt like we were undersea."  
  
"Colored lights? Man, you chicks had machina everywhere, huh?" Zalitz asked.  
  
I swallowed. "Hm--yeah. It was kinda hard getting used to the outside world when I left. Even little things like opening doors, I never had to do. I never cooked like this. I just dumped something out of a package and my oven did all the work. he lights were all automatic. You have no idea how weird it was to leave and use switchlamps in big hotels, and open fire everywhere else."  
  
"If you ask me, all the automation is the truly bizarre part," Naida cut in. "I only saw a few machina, and most of them were wrecks from the war a millennium ago. We always did everything by hand and traveled by Chocobo."  
  
"Sounds like you guys had really different childhoods," observed Reppi.  
  
"Yeah, dude. It's kinda weird. Since, y'know, you're both Al Bhed and all."  
  
Zalitz was not earning respect points from me here for that last one, and not just because he was still calling me "dude." I snapped, "Hey, we're not all cardboard cutouts any more than Yevonites are."  
  
"Yeah, well," Reppi snorted, "when I get outta here there aren't gonna *be* any more Yevonites. I'm gonna tell everyone what the temples are doin'."  
  
There was a quick pause as we all tried to figure out what we were supposed to say to that, and then Zalitz laughed. "They won't believe you."  
  
"Oh, yeah, they will!" Reppi's eyes were burning, and it was more than just a reflection of the fire. "They'll hafta! Don't'cha get it?! Yuna and the others aren't traitors--they figured out the same thing we did. If a summoner backs up our story--"  
  
"We have to escape first," Naida yawned.  
  
I was still scratching my head here. "I'm still not sure how you guys got here in the first place."  
  
"I was on my way to Macalania when they got me," explained Reppi. "The priest told me he'd take me to Bevelle. Said it was best to pray there first to prepare myself, then go around an' end up there again."  
  
"I bet that's the same priest that brought us here," I muttered to myself.  
  
"You said 'us' is you, Naaga, that Miyu person, and Bickson, isn't it?" Naida had a feral smile on her face, the kind that meant a potshot was coming. "I remember now. Aren't you and Bickson an item?" She turned to Reppi and Zalitz and stage-whispered behind her hand, "The whole blitz community is talking about how she moved in with him."  
  
"Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd," I snapped. Zalitz and Reppi were looking at me anyway. This was starting to get more than a little exasperating. I remembered that Reppi's village was pretty traditional, so I had to say something. "My *kid sister* and I crash at his place in Luca on the weekends. The only action we have time to get during the season is in the sphere."  
  
"Having trouble?" Reppi asked wryly. So much for traditionalism.  
  
"Nothing big." I shrugged and took another chunk of nasty meat. They were *still* looking at me expectantly, and then it locked into place in my head. If I'd been down in this dump for days with only two other people to talk to, I'd want to pick the brain of a newbie too. "It's stupid as hell, actually," I continued. "He doesn't want to let me meet his parents. Big slap in the face in Al Bhed culture. When you live in a little compound in the middle of nowhere like Home, family's a pretty big deal. Even if you've just met someone, you let 'em meet the 'rents right away."  
  
"And if you don't, the other person usually realizes you're cheating on them," Naida said smugly. "So, is he?"  
  
"Why the hell does everyone ask me that?" I grumbled moodily.  
  
Reppi held up a hand. "Whoa. Calm down, girl. He can't introduce ya to his folks."  
  
"Why not?" I demanded.  
  
"They're dead."  
  
The others were blinking almost as hard as I was. "For real?" asked Zalitz.  
  
"Yah. They died not too long before I took off."  
  
"Why wouldn't he just tell me that?" I wanted to know. "Doesn't make sense."  
  
"Sure it does. They pretty much lived in the slums in Luca anyway, y'know. Worse than my village even. His parents? They were street sweepers." I must have been staring, because she said, "No joke. And it kept gettin' worse and worse. They put all their cash inta his trainin' and equipment. They were livin' in an unheated one-room apartment, real cheap digs, and his mom was sick, and when he was off trainin' with us in Kilika for a couple weeks, she up and died. When he got back, they were both gone. His dad just lay around all day; couldn't bring himself ta work when there was no one ta work for. Bick always blamed himself, figurin' that if he hadn't been so set on the game, spent all that money an' gone off all the time an' all, they woulda made it."  
  
"Whoa. Am I the only one who had normal parents?" Naida asked. "One who haven't kicked the bucket?"  
  
Zalitz shook his head and tied into a wingbone. "Nah. Mine are still around. I can't talk to them though, not after deserting like that."  
  
"You deserted?" I asked him.  
  
"Six months ago. I was too afraid after Sin attacked our boat."  
  
"Then you weren't working on the docks?"  
  
"Nope. Who told you that?"  
  
"Why'd they tell me you were in charge of the shipment?"  
  
"Probably wanted you to make the connection, dude."  
  
Reppi stood and stretched. "Either way, we'd better get ta bed. I've got a feeling tomorrow's gonna be a big day."  
  
I didn't get it. "It's nine in the morning," I told her, glancing at my watch.  
  
She smiled indulgently. "Not in here, girl. In here, time doesn't exist." She settled herself on the ground and rolled over. "G'night."  
  
*****  
  
That "night" in the Via Purifico was the longest I've ever spent. The stone was hard underneath my back, and there were no blankets. It was damp and cold, and all I could think about was the burning questions that kept stabbing into my brain. Were they alive? Would we ever see them again if they were? What if we didn't make it out? What if we failed?  
  
"Screw it," I whispered to myself, and got up.  
  
I found the hilt end of the broken sword and got as far away as I could from the camp without losing sight of the fire. Then I stabbed the weapon into the ground again and again. The clangs echoed throughout the cave. I waited to see if any of the others were awake, but it seemed like they'd slept through the noise--they were probably as zonked as I was. When I was done, I had six shards, and I jammed them deep into the blitzball until it was like a throwing mace. With my Golden Arm on, I found I could grab it by a spike and hurl it almost as far as a normal ball and with about as much accuracy. I left one side spikeless so I could kick it without putting a slice of metal through my thin boot and my good and practiced shooting until I could do it perfectly every time.  
  
Nap Shot 3 with a kick.  
  
When I was sure of myself, I lay back down by the fire, set the ball beside me, and curled up into a fitful, dreamless sleep. The last thing I saw was the golden locket Bickson had given me, glittering in the firelight.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
Nisun-suhkanehk meddma pnyd - Rumor-mongering little brat 


	13. Slayer

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Ever wondered how the whole Sphere Grid thing works? Yeah, me too. Your friendly neighborhood flame mage--explaining game mechanics with a smile. I feel a little like Superman.  
  
Author's Note: As always, Al Bhed dialogue is translated at the end of the chapter. Here, Linna and Naida have a brief exchange entirely in Al Bhed, so I've posted the translation of their whole conversation at the bottom so you only have to scroll once.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 12: Slayer  
  
**********  
  
My body was so stiff when I got up that I could hardly move. Before my eyes even opened, I knew I wasn't gonna get any coffee. A couple seconds after that I remembered why, and a couple seconds after *that* I said the hell with it and stretched my muscles enough to stand.  
  
Zalitz was already awake and running around when I stumbled over to the fire. "G'morning, dude," he greeted me with a wave of his hand. "How'd ya sleep?"  
  
"Like hell," I replied, wondering how many times I'd used the word 'hell' in the last two days while shifting my weight around to try to get the feeling back in my legs. "How can you stand to be awake?"  
  
"I'm used to getting up early. At sea you sleep like this all the time--in shifts, at weird times, stuff like that. Rock isn't the worst bed I've ever slept on, either. Anyway," he continued, going back to the kabobs, "the whole time Reppi's been here, she had to hunt in the mornings, do everything herself. It was a crazy life, ya know? She talks to herself a lot now, just for the sound. But I figure if I can help her by getting the food and keeping the fire going, fine."  
  
"Did you hunt this morning?'  
  
He shook his head. "Nope. I can't make fire. I would have taken a torch, but that would mean leaving you guys alone, and if the fire went out while you were sleeping, you'd be toast. I'll have to do it soon, though, because this," he gestured at the four thin kabobs and the one marshmallow stick he was roasting, "is all we have left."  
  
I wanted to ask where he'd gotten the marshmallows, but that probably wasn't the issue at the moment. "Hopefully we'll be gone before we need to hunt again," I said instead.  
  
"Except for the plan."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
We both sighed. "Ya know," he said after a while, "You and Naida...you're not what I expected. They told us Al Bhed were really weird."  
  
I laughed. "I thought the same kinda thing about you...ex-Yevonites, I guess. Non-Al Bhed. Whatever you are. When I came to Luca, I was surprised that it wasn't the backwater dump I'd expected. I thought Home was the biggest place in the world. And you guys aren't weird like the Guado."  
  
"The Guado aren't that weird," Zalitz said. "I spent some time in Guadosalam when I was on shore leave once--I did a tour in the Moonflow. The Guado are really great people."  
  
"Or really great assholes. They live in trees."  
  
"You live in metal tubes. Naida and Reppi live in straw huts. I lived on a floating hunk of wood. What's that have to do with anything?"  
  
"But they attacked us. They bombed our Home and sent fiends to kill us all. And you say they're great?"  
  
"People do strange things for religion, Linna. They probably thought they were doing Yevon a favor by trying to purify Spira so we could be free of Sin."  
  
"What is there that could free us from Sin, Zalitz?" I asked.  
  
"I don't now. But whatever it is...it better happen soon."  
  
"Morning," Reppi said quietly, coming over to sit on her rock. "Thanks for getting the food, Zalitz. You didn't have to."  
  
"S'okay. I had Linna here to keep me company," he answered. "You wanna eat now or wait until the little princess makes her appearance?"  
  
"If by 'the little princess,' you are referring to the Auroch who rises with the birds as well, I'd say start without her," Naida cut in smoothly, arranging herself on her rock like a queen on a throne.  
  
"Oui'na dra uhmo bnehlacc E caa, oui yht ouin cdumah Al Bhed bnehla," I muttered.  
  
"Zaymuic palyica E nasutamat ouin drnuha nuus?"  
  
"Hud y lryhla, pumdc-vun-pnyehc. Yd maycd E ryja y puovneaht fru lyh yldiymmo pmedw ehcdayt uv zicd ceddehk ynuiht fedr y pymm."  
  
"Cbaygehk uv pymmc, drana yna y vaf drehkc E luimt sahdeuh ypuid dra unekeh uv dryd puovneaht'c helghysa..."  
  
I was snarling now. "Rao, oui, dyga dryd pylg nekrd huf pavuna E ryja du vunla ed tufh ouin drnuyd--yht zys ouin kukkmac tufh drana fedr ed." "Crack, crack!" added my knuckles.  
  
"Ahem." Reppi coughed and we looked up, surprised to find foreigners sitting there.  
  
"Remember us, dudes?" Zalitz asked rhetorically, waggling his fingers at me. "Your fellow escapees?"  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Let's just eat so we can get this whole miserable ordeal over with," I grumbled.  
  
And so breakfast was terse and tense and silent, with all of us lost in our own thoughts. I rolled the spiked blitzball back and forth, making nails-on-blackboard screeches until Naida threatened to feed me to the fiend as bait. I shot a couple of choice words in Al Bhed back at her out of the corner of my mouth, but that was it. Neither of us had the energy for a real catfight and we both knew it.  
  
"All right," Reppi said when all the food was gone and we were still licking our sticks to shut up our growling stomachs, "Zalitz, here's the sphere grid. I've already teleported ya to the right node, so just pop in an ability sphere and you'll be good to go."  
  
The sailor took a small sphere out of his pocket and carefully dropped it into the right hole. The next instant, there was a flash of light and his head shot back toward the cave ceiling, his body twitching as the light seemed like it was sucked into his widened eyes.  
  
"You okay?" Reppi asked when the light was gone. He nodded. She looked over at me. "It's always like that. We think the Moonflow in the spheres enters the body through the eyes, hits the bloodstream, and travels to the brain. S'not really painful, just a shock to the system. You got any spheres?"  
  
I held out my hand and she picked through the choices with her nails. "Hmm...a speed sphere, that'll be useful...hah."  
  
"Hah?" I asked.  
  
"Hah," she repeated. "An ability sphere. Perfect."  
  
"What am I supposed to do with them?"  
  
"The first one'll make you faster. Easier to hit fast things like that floatin' eyeball critter that way. And the other one'll teach you an ability."  
  
"She should learn an enhanced attack," Naida suggested. "If she insists on using that bloody blitzball of hers, something like Silence Buster or Dark Buster will increase her power."  
  
"Sleep attacks pack the most punch...okay. We'll do that." Reppi turned to me and tapped one of the holes with a nail. "Put the first sphere in this node here. We'll increase your speed first; might be easier to take."  
  
"Is it safe?" I wanted to know. Not like I was nervous or anything. I never get nervous.  
  
"About as safe as recording your memories at the Sphere Theater, dude," Zalitz answered for her. "Ya never know what effects Moonflow has on the human mind. But you've basically been eating it, so if you're going down, you're going down. At least this way, you have a shot."  
  
"Yeah, good enough." I braced myself, then remembered I still had my goggles on. This was not making things any better--all it did was make me even more nervous.  
  
Wait, I wasn't nervous. I never get nervous. I whipped off my goggles, held the sphere above the node Reppi had pointed out, and dropped it. I realized just as it hit that my eyes were screwed shut.  
  
Nothing happened. There was a small clinking sound.  
  
"Where'd it go?" Zalitz wondered.  
  
"Shit." I opened my eyes. I'd dropped it on the ground.  
  
"Here." Reppi picked it up and handed it back to me. "There. Don't do it with your eyes closed, child. It won't work if ya close 'em and it won't kill ya if ya keep 'em open. Just calm down and *set* it in the node."  
  
I gripped the sphere awkwardly between two metal fingers of the Golden Arm, forced myself to widen my eyes, and set the annoying little bugger in the slot.  
  
Instantly I couldn't have shut my eyes if I'd tried, which I did instinctively first thing off the bat. My neck snapped back; I stared with bloodshot pupils at the blackness above me--  
  
--and then it was over and I could breathe again.  
  
"You all right?" Reppi asked, setting a hand on my shoulder. "Ready for the next one, or do ya wanna wait?"  
  
"Bring it on." I held out my hand face up and she dropped the second sphere into my golden palm with a clank. This time I didn't hesitate as I held the sphere over the adjacent Sleep Buster node and dropped it in.  
  
It was stronger this time. I was nearly knocked over and I wondered briefly as it happened how so much power could be packed into a little piece of gray plastic and a tiny marble.  
  
When I was myself again, Reppi took the sphere grid back and stood. "Okay. Let's get away from the camp somewhere. Naida, get the jar. When we're a ways out where we can't damage anythin', I'll put the fire out. When somethin' finds us, kill off all but one of 'em if a bunch charge us at once. Then Zalitz will Threaten it and Linna will dribble the ball on it while Naida catches the Moonflow. Got it?"  
  
Zalitz snapped to attention like he was still on the high seas and saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"  
  
Naida yawned. "I've got it."  
  
"Roger," I said. "Let's do it."  
  
*****  
  
I'm pretty bad with any distance longer than the diameter of a blitz sphere. I'm not sure how far we walked--it took us about five minutes, so it must not have been far from the place where Reppi found me. All I'm really sure of is that all of a sudden Reppi cried "Watera!" and the fire was gone.  
  
I heard her footsteps as she moved away and crouched, and then I heard it as Zalitz strapped on the brass knuckles he'd picked up on the Luca docks.  
  
"You still there?" I hissed in the general direction where Naida'd been.  
  
"I'm not the one who's going to be running, priss," she hissed back.  
  
Now that I knew I wasn't alone, I was feeling like a big shot again. "Get over yourself already, Naida," I snapped. "You're like me--you get pissed off when you're freaked out. But if we're gonna do this, don't take it out on me just because you're scared, got it?"  
  
There was a silence, and then, "I'm sorry. I *am* scared."  
  
"Yeah. Me too."  
  
More silence.  
  
"What happens if we die?" she asked, sounding a little like Naaga.  
  
"At least it'll be quick this way."  
  
Even more silence. I spent the next couple minutes cracking my knuckles uneasily before I heard a crash followed by a shout. "Here it comes!" Reppi's voice yelled.  
  
I whirled around to face the direction the sound was coming from. Out of the corner of my eye I could make out a heavy form charging toward us.  
  
"Hold it right there!" Zalitz bellowed, jumping straight into its path and slamming it in the face with the brass knuckles, which were not the best tool for the job.  
  
I was expecting the fiend to laugh in a fiendish kinda way and knock him flat on his back, but instead it froze in its tracks and turned cold and gray, like stone. "Now!" Zalitz called to us.  
  
"Let's go!" I cried to Naida and shot forward, my arm already cocked back to fire. She sprinted in front of me with the jar open in her hands.  
  
I flung the ball; it glanced off the leathery back of the fiend and back toward me, nearly hitting Naida in the face. She let out an unladylike stream of curses at me but ducked and started catching the small stream of Pyreflies that trickled up and out of the fiend's body.  
  
I caught the ball heavily with the Golden Arm and fired it again. This time it hit harder and the colored lights erupted in a frenzy. In the half-light, Naida was dancing like a summoner performing the Sending as she tried to catch them all. It was eerie, and for some reason it reminded me all too much of the dance I'd seen only a few weeks before at the bottom of Home.  
  
This time the ball arced too far back in the air for me to catch it--not that I would have had enough free brain cells to grab it if it had flown straight into my hand. I snapped out of the reverie and dove for the ball. I overshot and landed a couple feet past it; as I fell, my elbow slammed into it and we both skidded along the ground. I think I cursed, because Zalitz turned to look. And at that moment, the fiend broke free and charged straight for me.  
  
I saw Reppi raise her hands and open her mouth to cast a spell, but she was too far away; it would reach me before she could block me off with a wall of fire. So I did what you do right before a tackle in blitzball; get rid of the ball.  
  
Just like a game, Linna. Nap Shot 3.  
  
"Sleep Buster," I whispered.  
  
I kicked one foot out into the only non-spiked spot I could find with my toes and slammed it hard at the fiend. It hit the neck hard, and I looked back just in time to see one of the spikes plunging deep into the throat. Instantly, Naida was on it like a panther, her arms wrapped around its neck as she struggled to contain the Moonflow.  
  
And then the fiend was gone, and Naida was capping the jar, and that jar was full of glimmering Pyreflies. Reppi was the first to speak. "Fira!" she boomed, and light flooded the cavern. We'd done it.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
Linna: Oui'na dra uhmo bnehlacc E caa, oui yht ouin cdumah Al Bhed bnehla.  
  
Naida: Zaymuic palyica E nasutamat ouin drnuha nuus?  
  
Linna: Hud y lryhla, pumdc-vun-pnyehc. Yd maycd E ryja y puovneaht fru lyh yldiymmo pmedw ehcdayt uv zicd ceddehk ynuiht fedr y pymm.  
  
Naida: Cbaygehk uv pymmc, drana yna y vaf drehkc E luimt sahdeuh ypuid dra unekeh uv dryd puovneaht'c helghysa...  
  
Linna: Rao, oui, dyga dryd pylg nekrd huf pavuna E ryja du vunla ed tufh ouin drnuyd--yht zys ouin kukkmac tufh drana fedr ed.  
  
-  
  
Linna: You're the only princess I see, you and your stolen Al Bhed prince.  
  
Naida: Jealous because I remodeled your throne room?  
  
Linna: Not a chance, bolts-for-brains. At least I have a boyfriend who can actually blitz instead of just sitting around with a ball.  
  
Naida: Speaking of balls, there are a few things I could mention about the origin of that boyfriend's nickname...  
  
Linna: Hey, you, take that back right now before I have to force it down your throat--and jam your goggles down there with it. 


	14. Victim

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I wonder what happened to the marshmallows. Wow. Plot hole. That's gonna bug me. If you sue me now, neither one of us will ever find out, and that'd be sucky.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 13: Victim  
  
**********  
  
The walk back to camp had never gone so quickly. I think we almost ran. Once we were there, it took only a few minutes to say goodbye to the place one final time--in my life, I've found that the shortest goodbyes always turn out to be the most important. I packed my gear bag and we collected the sphere grid and the last of the marshmallows (I never did find out where they came from). Reppi left the fire burning in case we needed to return, but we knew that by the time we could make it back, it would be long dead. I think we were all hoping we'd never have to go back, anyway. Two days in that hell had been enough for a lifetime.  
  
We made our way to the teleport platform, replaced the jar in the hole and set the platform back over the jar. This time, when I set a tentative toe on it, it zinged to life and glowed.  
  
"Anyone wanna go first?" Reppi asked.  
  
She said it lightly, but I could sense the uneasiness behind it. She wasn't a crusader like Miyu or an Al Bhed like me and Naida--aside from basic things like the blitz sphere cannons at Luca, she'd probably never used a machina in her life. The others musta realized that too, because Zalitz quickly stepped up and said, too loudly, "I'll go." He put his foot where mine had been, shifted his weight, felt that zinging sensation and then the electric hum as the pad reacted. Then he stepped all the way into the center until the arrow appeared.  
  
"You better check to see if that's the only one," I warned him.  
  
He checked. It was.  
  
"Okay. Take a torch so you'll be all right," Reppi said.  
  
Naida leaned over and handed him one of the sticks she'd brought from the firepit. He grabbed the end and held it out toward the goalie. "Fira," she said quietly in response, and the other end of the stick caught fire and held, blazing, in the darkness. It was like a ritual of some kind.  
  
And then he stepped hard in the center and was gone.  
  
I waited until I was sure, and then followed.  
  
*****  
  
When I appeared again, it was like the scene hadn't changed at all. Still dark. Still damp. Still nasty. We coulda been in the same spot, except for one difference--now I could hear the sound of water coming from one side of the cave.  
  
"Linna!" Zalitz cried from behind me, grabbing me and spinning me around in total ecstacy. "Ya hear that? It's water! And if there's running water in here, it's gotta come from somewhere, dude! I think we found ourselves a way out!"  
  
"Or at least an underground hot spring," I griped, never one for blind optimism. My head wasn't hurting anymore and there was only a slight bump, but the caked blood was matted in my hair and there was cave grime all over me. "I'm a wreck."  
  
"How is that any deviation from the norm, dear?" Naida commented primly as she appeared in a sudden hailstorm of light from the pad. Then something in her face changed and her eyes lit up. "Oh, does anyone else hear that?"  
  
"The water?" Zalitz asked excitedly. "Ya kidding me? I could be back in Luca waxing my board in no time!"  
  
"Hmm, I wonder where the airship is now," Naida was musing dreamily, only half-listening to him. "I'm sure Aniki-darling must be veeeerry worried about me by now..."  
  
'Yeah, or else he's planning more hostile takeovers of Guadosalam or ogling Yuna,' is what I would have said at any other given moment in time, but they were psyched and it was starting to get to me. What I actually said was something more like, "Yeah. I'm sure."  
  
Reppi appeared at that point, still clutching her own torch. "Whatevah it is, let's go check it out," she said when we told her. "It's the only idea we got, anyway."  
  
We ran.  
  
*****  
  
The adrenaline was pounding in my ears by the time the cave walls opened up about three minutes later. That was good, because it meant my reflexes were heightened, which is probably the only reason I didn't pitch forward and down the fifty feet into the pool of water far, far below me.  
  
"Rumo cred!" I hissed, skittering backwards and clinging to the ground of the cave like at any moment I was going to be blown by a random wind off the edge and down there. "It's a cliff, guys. You want your water, you gotta jump for it."  
  
"No way." Zalitz got down on his hands and knees and gripped the edge of the cliff face to look down. There was a very small but very meaningful cracking sound, and he scrambled back the same way I had.  
  
No one said anything for a minute.  
  
"Well," Naida commented somberly after a while, "this is unfortunate."  
  
"From what y'all told me, though, Zalitz mighta been right," Reppi said. "See how the water's runnin' in an' outta the pool down there? Means it's comin' from somewhere and goin' to somewhere, maybe from outside. I got a feelin' we gotta take a chance here."  
  
"And how do you propose we take this chance of yours?" asked Naida, reasonably. "That cliff face is fifteen yards if it's an inch."  
  
"That's one heckuva bellyflop, dude," added Zalitz. I cracked the knuckles in my left index finger; he shut up.  
  
"Let's think about it," Reppi suggested sternly. Zalitz stopped cracking jokes and I stopped cracking knuckles and we tuned back in. When the mother Chocobo was sure her chicks were listening, she continued, "We gotta get down there somehow. So howddaya get down a cliff likethat?"  
  
"I did some cliff-climbing in the Calm Lands," Naida volunteered. "The easiest way is just to use a harness and rappel down. If one lacks a harness, it's possible to hang-glide down, or climb down with picks, or even ride an animal."  
  
"Like a fiend?" I wondered, thinking of the priest back in Luca who'd flown in on a Zu. "Like a One-Eye?"  
  
"Is a One-Eye big enough?" asked Zalitz.  
  
Reppi shrugged. "If you're small enough. This child," she jerked a thumb at me, "might be able to pull it off; fifty feet isn't all that far. Maybe Naida. You and me, though, gotta find another way down."  
  
"Does anyone have any rope?" Naida asked. No one did.  
  
Suddenly Zalitz brightened up. "Do you guys know how to dive?"  
  
It was a rhetorical question. After years of blitz, we all knew how to dive like pros-- which, come to think of it, is exactly what we were. Since the sphere pools are under the stands in Luca, the spectators above can hear it if you cannonball in. Everyone masters a perfect, silent dive.  
  
"You can dive from pretty high heights if you do it right, dudes," he said. "Like, without getting hurt. Back when I was on a ship, I had a friend who used to dive off the mast and into the ocean. Got really good at it."  
  
"Fifty feet?" Naida looked as skeptical as I felt. "How deep is that thing?"  
  
"Gimme the torch, Zalitz," Reppi asked. He handed it over, and she reared back and threw it down over the edge of the cliff as hard as she could.  
  
We watched as it plummeted through the air and landed with a splash, then sank slowly to the bottom. After a while, it stopped getting smaller and we figured it had hit the bottom. I had no idea what that meant--it could've been three feet deep, for all I knew about it--but Reppi nodded knowledgeably and announced, "'Bout thirty feet, give or take a little."  
  
"You sure about that?" I asked. "That's pretty slim. What happens if you're wrong?"  
  
Naida laughed. "Then whoever goes first goes splat and the rest of us know not to follow."  
  
"Great. You go first," I told her, giving her a little push.  
  
She fought to regain her balance, flailing wildly. As soon as she regained it, she started whining. "Me? Why me? If anything happened to me, poor Aniki would be--"  
  
"--all over the summoner," I shot back. "Come on. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner you get to see him, okay?"  
  
"All right, *fine,* if you *insist.*" I could tell that she was going to start flouncing in a minute, which was why I was hoping she dove quickly. She motioned for the rest of us to back off. When we were out of her way, she positioned herself a few inches from the edge, took a deep breath, and dove.  
  
Later I figured out I was holding my own breath as she fell, but her form was flawless. She barely made a splash as she hit the water. The worst part was still not knowing how deep the pool was, though, and it was a long time before she surfaced again.  
  
"It's fine!" she called up to us, treading water. "It's a little cold, but it's definitely deep enough to dive."  
  
Now that we had that figured out, the only hard part was actually diving. By some unspoken understanding, Zalitz stepped up next. He fumbled a little on the jump, but managed to recover in midair and landed okay. Reppi was already in position for her dive by the time he came up and swam aside, and I had to laugh. We were acting like it was a community pool and a lifeguard was looking over our shoulder.  
  
Reppi's dive went off without a hitch, and now I was all alone on the ledge. It occured to me that maybe it was pretty stupid to go last, because she was the only one who could make fire and now I had to get this over with quickly. I hefted my gear bag in my arms, hoping that the waterproof canvas still worked on impact, and tossed it down as close as I could to the others without conking one of them on the head. Then I edged closer to the edge of the cliff face and looked down.  
  
A word to the wise: Don't EVER look down.  
  
Because while I was looking down, I was getting freaked out of my skull, and I will swear to my grave that that was the reason I fell.  
  
It's a tribute to my training with Rin that I didn't die right then. In midair, with maybe three seconds to impact and my limbs flailing, I actually took two breaths and counted to ten, and while I was doing that I was bringing my arms and legs together into a flawless streamline and getting myself ready for the splashdown.  
  
My fingertips hit the water first, in what seemed at the time like perfect silence, and then the rest of me plunged in at what seemed at the time like all at once. I'm not sure how far down I went, but my first thoughts were that I'd better get up to get some air, and also that I'd be freezing my ass off if it weren't wrapped like the rest of me in vinyl.  
  
Naida's wasn't, and so the first thing I heard when I got around to taking a breath was her whining and shoving every other word between asterisks. "Eeeeek, it's *freezing!* I *told* you this was suicide, Reppi, but would you listen? *Noooo.*"  
  
"Ever just want to hit her?" I muttered to Zalitz.  
  
"All the time," he muttered back, handing me my gear bag. I held it above the water level, shook it out, and took a look at it. It was still watertight. I'd have to be careful if I needed to use my weapon underwater, though, I realized; the spikes would kill the momentum. I started hoping I wouldn't have to take it out again--ever.  
  
Those hopes lasted, at a liberal estimate, maybe thirty seconds before the huge half-rotted blue snake dragon thing from hell showed up.  
  
*****  
  
My hydroponic gardening books said that sometimes, if you planted your crops in natural water, little water snakes would come. The book had been written by an Al Bhed--at the time, we were the only ones in Spira who knew how to cultivate plants hydroponically anyway--for use at Home, so they weren't something I had to worry about until recently. But I was a pretty serious gardener, so I read all the chapters anyway. These water snakes, I learned, lived mostly in places like the villages along the Highroads, where there were marshes and small pools of fresh or brackish water. The water snakes there might build a nest around certain plants, lay eggs in others, and eat most of the rest of what was left.  
  
Just for the record: this was no frickin' water snake.  
  
It should have been too big to fit in that pool comfortably at maybe twenty or twenty- five feet long, which was part of the reason I figured it must have come from someplace else. It was probably closer to dragon than snake, because it had four short, skinny legs with sharp claws coming out of the ends. It had brought with it a faintly putrid smell, like something that had long since died and rotted. It looked pretty rotted too, actually.  
  
'This thing,' I thought suddenly, 'has seriously kicked the bucket.'  
  
You probably think I'm nuts--actually, so did I at the time. It wasn't until later that Reppi told me that it's not totally uncommon to find zombie fiends in Spira. No one has yet been able to explain exactly why it happens. The current scientific theory is that something causes a different kind of Moonflow reaction to occur when the person dies. The ghost story Reppi told me is that a human becomes a zombie fiend when they kick it after eating the flesh of another human being.  
  
All this isn't important in the slighest, but it was the kind of thing that was going through my mind as I sized the HHRBSDTfH up. As it turned out, this was a huge mistake, because while I was trying to figure out what it was and how to make it leave, it whipped its long purple tail around and straight into Zalitz's stomach. He gasped--another big mistake underwater, and one that as a blitzer, he shouldn't've made--and crumpled, the wind knocked out of him.  
  
"Shit!" Reppi mouthed, then gestured to us. "I'll start attackin' this thing, try to distract it. Get him up for air."  
  
Even Naida knew when to follow an order. We bolted, dumping our bags, and got under his arms, kicking frantically to get ourselves up faster. We surfaced with a gasp and Naida pressed his body up against the cave wall while I tried to pump air into his lungs.  
  
I heard a garbled yell from under the water and a stream of bubbles shot up from Reppi's direction. Something heavy followed. It was my blitzball, but attacked to one of the spikes was a Phoenix Down. I grabbed for it, but the HHRBSDTfH was quicker and dove in the way.  
  
Immediately it reeled back and crumpled, pretty much the way Zalitz had, but it didn't float like he had. Instead, it kept thrashing, making waves so big we were knocked like rubber Chocobies against the sides of the cave. Then it burst into a shower of Pyreflies.  
  
"Well," Jassu said, "It's about time." 


	15. Healer

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
I used the lyrics to the Hymn of the Fayth in here, including the translation. This information was obtained from http://ffxpert.cartoonhit.com/lyrics.html. It was blatantly stolen without permission from said brilliant site, so I'd just like to note that none of this is my work and all credit should go to whoever figured that out at FFExpert. Thanks, guys. Please don't sue me. _;;  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 14: Healer  
  
**********  
  
I did a double-take. My first thought was that I had to be hallucinating. There was no way I'd just heard Jassu say something. Then I realized that if I was going to bother to hallucinate, it would make more sense to imagine Bickson or Naaga, who I wanted to see even more. Having established that I probably wasn't crazy, I braced myself and looked.  
  
"Jassu! You're alive!" I gasped.  
  
He looked offended. "You losin' it, Cap'n? A'course I'm alive. We were just tryin' to figure out a way to get that sucker when you did it for us."  
  
"Who's 'we'?" Reppi asked again, in the same tone of voice with which she'd asked me. I got a flash of deja vu. For once, Naida just looked on silently. She was still tending to Zalitz, who was conscious and sucking air hard now.  
  
"All the rest of us, ya?" Letty said from behind us. "Good ta see ya, Cap'n. That sister a'yours's been pretty worried."  
  
"Ahh, I wasn't," Jassu said lazily. "Cap'n LinLin can get herself outta anythin'."  
  
"Where are we?" Naida piped up, already playing hardball.  
  
"The Via Purifico," the two Aurochs answered together. Then Letty continued, "The two a'us've been down here 'bout...what, Jass, four days now, ya? Your sister and the Crusader and that idiot Goer showed up a couple days later. We got kinda a camp set up a couple caves back, but until today we hadn't gone this far--weren't really sure we could take that thing on. We're hopin' there's an exit out this--" He stopped. "'Zzat Reppi?!"  
  
"You just now noticed, child?" Reppi asked. "Lord, how can you play blitzball with eyes like that?"  
  
Jassu blurted out, "But--but--you're dead."  
  
The Spiral goalie laughed. "It'd take more'n a couple priests to kill me, boy. I've been up there--" she cocked her head toward the cliff "--for a couple years now."  
  
"Hey, guys," I started. "This is great and all, but can we do it at your camp? Zalitz is still in bad shape. He'd better rest up--cred, we'd all better rest up while we can--and then we'll see if there's an exit this way."  
  
The two Aurochs exchanged glances. Then Letty said, "You got it, Cap'n," and started off.  
  
*****  
  
We swam for several minutes through several caves that all looked alike. Letty and Jassu led the way, Naida--who was under the drastically mistaken impression that they cared--was following about half a foot behind them ranting about how cold the water was and how she missed her poor darling Aniki, and Reppi and I brought up the rear with Zalitz in tow. Like servants.  
  
After a while, the guys stopped in front of a green wall. When I looked closely, I saw that it wasn't a wall; it was a thick net of seagrasses woven together. Stuck into the grasses were dozens of sharpened rocks. Naida sucked in her breath and drew back.  
  
"Here it is, Cap'n," Jassu announced listlessly. "Home sweet frickin' home."  
  
"The net?" Naida asked.  
  
Jassu shook his head. "Look behind it."  
  
I found a gap between two reeds where there weren't any rocks and peeped through. On the other side of the net, I could see a smallish cave that looked exactly like every other cave we'd gone through. 'Home sweet frickin' home' looked cold and damp and not too comfortable. Also, it was completely underwater. I was having a hard time figuring out what made this natural dump even slightly habitable.  
  
Letty must have read my mind, because he asked, "We got patches of seaweed growing on the cave wall. Those're our beds. We tied 'em together so we could strap ourselves in--seatbelts like you guys got in your machina. We sleep like that."  
  
"Letty made it up," Jassu explained. Letty's tanned face flushed and he waved it off. The guard continued, "We eat the seaweed too. For a coupla days we didn't eat anything, but...well...ya get hungry enough, ya?"  
  
"How do you keep the fiends away?" Reppi asked.  
  
"At first we just fought 'em whenever they came by, but when the womenfolk showed up we figured we needed a better way. We made the nets outta the seaweed and chipped off bits of rock to weave in. Fiends can break through 'em easily, but most of 'em don't wanna get anywhere near those rocks. We've been okay for the most part. Hey, kid," he called, "Open the gate for a minute already , ya? It's us."  
  
"Hang on already!" griped a familiar voice that would've made my breath catch in my throat if I'd been breathing. For the last few minutes, we'd been completely underwater, with no room to come up for air. Given the way Zalitz was looking, I decided we'd better get some soon.  
  
A small hand with a half-glove on and bright purple fingernails cautiously pulled the net aside and a face looked through. Then the entire net was dropped to the cave floor and Naaga shot through it like a cannon, tightening her arms around my neck until she nearly choked me. "Linnie!" she cried.  
  
Bubbles streamed out of her mouth and into my face. My eyes started burning inside my goggles, and I realized I was probably crying. "Naaga!" I think I yelled back as I crunched her ribcage. "Are you okay? Did those jerks lay a hand on you?"  
  
"Nah, I'm fine, Linnie," she replied cheerfully. "The seaweed tastes bad, but I'm not hurt at all. I think maybe the one guard felt kinda sorry for me--he said I reminded him of his daughter, and he didn't push me in like he did Miyu and Bickson. I'm kinda worried about Miyu, though. She doesn't talk much. I think she's really sad."  
  
"The kid's right," Letty agreed. "That Glory lady's been really down ever since she showed up. You think you can talk to her?"  
  
"I can try."  
  
Reppi waved a hand at me. "Go ahead, then. We'll hold down the fort here."  
  
"See how the gate on the udda' side'a the cave unlatches, Cap'n?" Jassu asked. "She's over there. When you want to come back, just holler, ya?"  
  
*****  
  
This cave had a grand total of one ledge, and it was occupied by Miyu. She was sitting with her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging them to her chest. She looked like a little girl, the way Naaga did when she was trying to be cute and make me feel sorry for her so I wouldn't yell at her about not doing the dishes. Except Miyu definitely wasn't putting on an act. She really seemed lost.  
  
"Hey," I said softly, swimming over and chinning myself on the ledge. "You okay?"  
  
She didn't say anything. I could've kicked myself. Zaaw, oy ehcahcedeja sunuh, dryd fyc csynd. "Sorry. Stupid question."  
  
"No." She shook her head slowly, not looking at me. "I am still a bit...shaken. It...it is..." Abruptly she stopped and something hardened in her voice. "I'm tired of being so formal. It sucks, Linna. We were betrayed. I threw away my whole life for this...this shit!"  
  
I stared at her. I couldn't remember ever hearing her curse. I couldn't remember ever hearing that bitterness in her voice, not even when she talked about the reason she became a blitzer. But even though she was still sitting the same way, nothing about her face looked childish at all. It looked more like her mask--sharp and hard and cold.  
  
She clenched a fist. "I don't know, Linna. I just don't know anymore. I still don't even believe there's a way for us to get out of here. And even if there is, now we know there's no way to destroy Sin. We'll be trapped forever. We'll fight it without hope until we die."  
  
"I don't believe that!"  
  
I must have yelled the words, because she finally looked up and stared at me. Slowly, I counted to ten and took the two deep breaths, just the way Rin had taught me. "Maybe I'm lying to myself, but there has to be a way," I said.  
  
"I've lost my faith, Linna." She was trying to smile, but it wasn't working. There were deep circles under her eyes, and her skin was pale. Had she slept at all in the last two days?  
  
"You don't need faith," I told her. "Yevonites, Al Bhed, Ronso, Guado, Hypello...you know what makes us different from Sin?"  
  
She shook her head. "Because we're fighting for a reason, Miyu," I said. "We're fighting to protect people we care about. We're fighting to hold on to our memories. We're fighting because we want our lives to mean something. We're fighting because we have no other choice. And we're going to win because we have to. There's nothing else we can do."  
  
  
  
ieyui  
  
nobomeno  
  
renmiri  
  
yojyuyogo  
  
hasatekanae  
  
kutamae  
  
  
  
"Whaa--?" I started. Miyu's glove shot up in my face, just the one hand, to silence me. She threw her head back and listened with her eyes closed.  
  
"The Hymn of the Fayth," she whispered. "Someone's singing it."  
  
And I could hear it now too. It wasn't just one person, though. It sounded like hundreds, coming from above us and ringing all around us. The cave walls echoed.  
  
  
  
ieyui  
  
nobomeno  
  
renmiri  
  
yojyuyogo  
  
hasatekanae  
  
kutamae  
  
  
  
Flash--and I remembered the airship. The old woman with the too-bright eyes. The missles. The inferno. Cradling Naaga. Crying. Twenty, thirty voices, singing the hymn of a false god we'd never held sacred.  
  
Al Bhed know what the words of the Hymn mean. "Pray now, for Yu Yevon, who will not go away. For the sake of prosperity, dream now, the Fayths of Yevon." Even knowing that, we've always sung it at life-changing events. The destruction of my Home, and the Homes before it. Weddings. Births. Funerals. The Hymn of the Fayth is a part of Spira's history, and the Al Bhed are a part of Spira.  
  
And Spira was singing now. Miyu and I both realized it at the same time. It seemed like there was no other way we could have heard it from where we were unless the whole world was singing. Later I realized we'd probably been under Bevelle. I could picture those red brick walkways flooded with the thousands upon thousands of people in that city, singing as they watched that Al Bhed airship taking on Sin.  
  
Because that, although we didn't know it until later, was what was happening. Miles above us, my leader and my ex-boyfriend and my little sister's friend and my blitz captains and Spira's last hope were all looking Sin right in the eye for the last time.  
  
  
  
ieyui  
  
nobomeno  
  
renmiri  
  
yojyuyogo  
  
hasatekanae  
  
kutamae  
  
  
  
I wish I could have been there. I wish mine could have been the hands that struck it its fatal blow. I wish I could have said goodbye to Tidus. I wish I could have avenged the deaths of my parents, made my mother proud for once.  
  
But all I could do was sing.  
  
*****  
  
For a sec there, it was like we were in a different world. The voices from aboveground were still echoing around us, and Miyu and I were just there, all alone with the fiends. She was crouched on the tiny ledge, I was still treading water, and we were both singing that hymn. I keep trying to describe what it was like, but I can't--neither English nor Al Bhed has the words I'd need to make you feel what I felt that day. It was...the fiercest sound I've ever heard. It could have been a battle cry, and in a way I could probably call it that. But there was so much pain in it, and, in a way...hope.  
  
Maybe you had to be there.  
  
But when it was all over, I felt like something had gone out of me. I leaned my head on the ledge again, and Miyu and I just looked at each other.  
  
"I want to see the new millennium dawn on a world without Sin," she whispered.  
  
I agreed so strongly I didn't even punch her for the cliche.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Zaaw, oy ehcahcedeja sunuh, dryd fyc csynd." - "Jeez, ya insensitive moron, that was smart." 


	16. Hero

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Gah; I'm running out of part names. _;; Oh, well, guess it's time for some resolution to begin. C'mon, this is the satisfying part; don't ruin it by suing me now! -__-;; I'm such a sap...  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 15: Hero  
  
**********  
  
Eventually the two of us pulled ourselves together and doggy-paddled back to camp. This was a good thing, because by this point the fiends had moved from the lurking-ominously stage to the inching-slowly-closer-while-trying-to-look-nonchalant phase of the proceedings. I'm a blitzer; I know the tricks. Since Miyu was a goalie and therefore totally clueless about bluffs like that, this was another good thing, and probably the reason we managed to make it back in one piece (well, two pieces--one piece each--auggh, you know what I mean).  
  
I was hoping Bickson would be there when we got back, but as it turned out, he was the only one who wasn't. Naida was still jabbering away to Reppi, who was starting to wear the same terminally hassled facial expression as Tidus had when the guys kept pelting me with blitzballs. Zalitz was strapped into one of the seabeds, apparently asleep but looking almost as good as new. The guys were kicking around a blitzball. Naaga had tried to hang her bag on a sharp rock overhang and was fretting over the fact that her stuffed Moogle was still sopping wet.  
  
Jassu sidled up to me. "Hey, Cap'n, no offense, but...is your sister all there? You told us she was sixteen, ya?"  
  
"You mean 'cause she's sixteen it's weird that she still sleeps with a stuffed Moogle and talks like a little kid?" I asked. He nodded. "Probably looks that way, I guess. In some ways, she never really got to *be* a little kid, o'ghuf? She was six when our parents died. Rin and I tried to take care of her, but she still had to grow up too fast. I was always on her ass about studying...anyway, I decided that playing dress-up with a stuffed toy wasn't as bad as getting into sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll--"  
  
"Tuh'd oui *tyna* ghulg caq, tnikc, yht nulg 'h numm," Naida interrupted.  
  
"--SO I LET HER," I continued in a much louder voice. "Don't let the little-kid act fool you, either. She's a lot sharper than you think."  
  
"Leave it alone, Jass," Letty told him. "I think she's cute, ya?"  
  
"Not gonna argue," the guard replied.  
  
I didn't like the dreamy edge in his voice, so I decided to cut in. "Uhm...yeah, guys, that's great. Where's Bickson?"  
  
"That guy?" Jassu asked languidly, having been snapped out of it. "I dunno. He's around somewhere."  
  
"You guys been getting along okay?"  
  
Letty shrugged. "Could be worse. I wouldn't have the guy over for dinner, but he's not as bad on his own as he is around Graav and Abus. Those two are the pits."  
  
"Where'd he say he was goin' again, Lets?" Jassu wanted to know.  
  
"He was lookin' for a way out, smart guy!" The forward smacked himself on the forehead and turned to me, shaking his head. "You wanna find him, Cap'n LinLin, I'd start by headin' back the way you came. There's a back way, so I'm figurin' he mighta headed out that direction once he figured out Evrae Altana was gone."  
  
Jassu was blinking pretty hard. "Evrae Altana?"  
  
"The dead thing?" I asked. He nodded. "Yeah, just checking. I'm gonna head out that way then. You guys get hungry, I think Zalitz has a couple marshmallows left."  
  
They both lunged and started breast-stroking madly at the same moment. "Watch those arms! You move like that in a blitz sphere, you're gonna get pummeled!" I called after them. They both brought their arms in and started stroking with more power. Satisfied, I dragged out my spike ball and headed off into the sunset.  
  
*****  
  
For the most part, the fiends kept their distance as I made my way toward the cliff we'd jumped from, like they knew I was on a mission. Or maybe they saw the spike ball and were smart enough to stay away. Were they like humans? Did they still have human brains? I wasn't sure, and I didn't really want to find out.  
  
I didn't stay long in the cliff room--bad associations--but kept going in that direction. I'd gotten two caves down when the fiends finally jumped me.  
  
These were some seriously bad-ass fiends. Two of them were large manta-ray things that glowed and flapped their wings like waterlogged bats. They also made sucking noises like air being gulped through a snorkel that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle. The other one was this spiny-looking fish thing that would have looked almost appetizing this morning but made me kinda nauseous now that I had a chance in hell of ever getting out and eating real food again.  
  
It was pretty easy to punch holes in the little sucker things, but Spiny and I did not get along at all. It had this habit of slamming me up against the cave wall and trying madly to stab me with its fins, which were gleaming ominously. Ominously-gleaming things are always a bad sign in my book.  
  
But it freaked me out for another reason--fiends don't do stuff like that. Fiends use magic or they rush you; I'd never seen one before that was bright enough to figure out how to beat its prey against a wall. Something was very wrong here. But since I couldn't put my finger on what, I kept beating the living crap out of the thing as best as I could without getting skewered.  
  
The last time I put my hand flat on the spineless side of the ball, held it out, and took the rush with that hand like a matador. My glove took a beating, but my hand was okay and the thing gored itself and died.  
  
"Ruf'c ed vaam, mihlrsayd?" I muttered.  
  
I was crumpled against the wall at the time, but when I opened my eyes, I couldn't see a single Pyrefly. Not one.  
  
Creepy.  
  
*****  
  
"Nice work," someone said from the opposite entrance. I jumped and looked up. The first thing my eyes registered was the shock of red, and then the cerulean and royal purple and gold of a Goer uniform. And finally the deep blue eyes, and the wide mouth that even now was folded into that trademark smug smile.  
  
"Bick," I said stupidly, because I couldn't think of anything that would've worked better.  
  
"Hey, green eyes," he said casually, like we hadn't been trapped in the Purgatory of a defunct religion for two days now. "How's it going?"  
  
We coulda run into each other in the line at Mitza's back in Luca and the conversation would've gone the same way. "I'm alive, man," I told him, my brain still sorting through the important information it had gleaned in the last forty-eight hours. Finally it settled on, "I found Reppi."  
  
"She was down here somewhere, huh? Wow. I was hoping you'd find her."  
  
"Hmm." Something she'd told me was still bothering me. "Hey...why didn't you tell me about your parents? I woulda got it, y'know?"  
  
He sighed, swam all the way into the cave, and pulled himself up onto a ledge. "It wasn't that easy, Lin." He was kicking his legs in the water, and it was splashing me in the face. I headed for the side and climbed up next to him. "I guess Reppi told you," he said, not looking at me. "I would've clued you in eventually, but...I never told anyone before. Remember the first night I took you to the stadium roof in Luca?"  
  
"How could I forget?"  
  
"I don't know why--something almost made me tell you. Maybe because your parents aren't around anymore either. But it wasn't Sin that killed them. It wasn't something terrible and tragic and unavoidable. It was me, Lin. I killed them."  
  
"You didn't kill them, Bickson," I said, but it was mostly to myself. I don't think he heard me, and I don't think he would have believed me if he had. I didn't say anything for a while, just let him be alone, and eventually he turned to me with the grin back in place. "You really did a number on that sushi back there."  
  
"You were watching?"  
  
"You think I'd miss a show like that?"  
  
"Why didn't you help instead of standing there like you needed a Soft?" Rim shot. Even I had to wince.  
  
"I was waiting for you to Nap Shot it," he replied smugly.  
  
Ooh. Opening. "I was waiting for you to come in and *swipe* my Nap Shot."  
  
"Oww." He pantomimed an arrow flying into his heart. "Can't let that die, huh?"  
  
"It's only been a couple weeks, babe; lemme cool off. Discretion is the better part of valor."  
  
He grabbed my spike ball and spun the empty section on one "No, flatline plays are the better part of valor. Get it straight already."  
  
"Flatline's for wusses," I cracked.  
  
"Wusses, huh? I have a proverb for you, too: don't count your Chocobos before they hatch. If you think flatlines are for wusses, wait 'till you see what I've got planned for our big season finale."  
  
I raised an eyebrow at him. "We've gotta make it back first."  
  
"We're gonna make it back, green eyes," he said seriously, looking back at me. "I found an exit."  
  
"Whaa?! A way out?!"  
  
He nodded in total satisfaction--or was that more smugness? "Yep. Leads straight out of the temple. Not even guarded."  
  
"What the hell are we waiting for?!" I snatched my spike ball back, jumped off the ledge, and started back the way I'd come. "Let's get the others and get out of here!"  
  
He followed, more slowly. "There are probably still temple goons ready to find us if we run," he reminded me.  
  
I just looked at him. "I've got a spike ball. I'll take my chances, babe."  
  
"Whoa. That thing is wicked," he laughed.  
  
"No kidding. You should see my Nap Shot now." I kept going.  
  
"Hey. Wait a second," he called. I turned to face him. He was just treading water lightly in the center of the cave, looking at me.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Remember what you said when...when they were taking us? Back with Mika? 'E muja oui'?"  
  
"Oh, yeah." I suddenly became totally enthralled with the cave ceiling, then realized that probably wasn't the way to go about this. "It's Al Bhed. It means--"  
  
"I know what it means." He cut me off and just looked at me for a few more seconds before swimming up next to me. My goggles hit the water with a soft plopping sound just before he said, "E muja oui duu, Linna."  
  
I blinked at him. "When did you learn to speak Al Bhed?"  
  
He just grinned. "It was one of the first things I asked your sister to teach me to say."  
  
"Dryd yht dryd oui'na Mehhy'c syh-cmyja, nekrd?" I laughed.  
  
"Pehku," he replied, putting his arms around me.  
  
We stood like that a long time before we finally made our slow way back to camp.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
"Tuh'd oui *tyna* ghulg caq, tnikc, yht nulg 'h numm." - "Don't you *dare* knock sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll."  
  
"Ruf'c ed vaam, mihlrsayd?" - "How's it feel, lunchmeat?"  
  
"E muja oui [duu]." - "I love you [too]."  
  
"Dryd yht dryd oui'na Mehhy'c syh-cmyja, nekrd?" - "That and that you're Linna's man-slave, right?"  
  
"Pehku." - "Bingo." 


	17. Victor

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Whoa. So it's finally over. Way longer than I expected. ^__^ Yep, this is it. Epilogue and author's (or characters') notes will be up soon. Thanks for the ride, everyone!  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
round 16: Victor  
  
**********  
  
"Hail, hail, the gang's all here," commented Reppi as Jassu took down the gate and the two of us came back into camp. "What about it, Bick? Anythin' we can do ta' get the gang all someplace else?"  
  
"Nice to see you too," the Goer grumbled. "Not like it's been a couple years or anything. Anyway, yeah, I found your exit. What say we get out of this hellhole already?"  
  
Naida laughed. "I'll drink to that."  
  
"I'll bet you will," Jassu muttered under his breath, but not so quietly I couldn't hear him.  
  
"So, who's got stuff to pack?" Letty asked loudly. Always the peacemaker--even Naaga had to roll her eyes at that one, but it worked.  
  
"Not a thing!" Miyu sang, swinging her arms. Bickson shot me a glance: 'Whoa. She's changed.' He was right. Something about her seemed a little lighter, or maybe 'freer' was the word. In Al Bhed they say 'dra tayt faekrd ryc paah cdnebbat vnus dra machina,' 'the dead weight has been stripped from the machina.' Mostly you use the expression when you've been having a bad week and Friday suddenly turns out to be the best day of your life, but seeing the weight off her shoulders was what made me think of it. 'You never really know someone until you see them stand on their own two feet'--the Al Bhed say that too.  
  
At the time, though, what the Al Bhed actually said was more like, "Let's get OUT of this place; my skin is all pruney!" This would be the Al Bhed in the form of my kid sister, who was as impatient as always. And as always, she got her way--right away. In two minutes flat the gate was open for the last time and we were on our way to freedom.  
  
Getting out seemed like it was gonna be almost too easy, which of course was where the problem was. Murphy's Law, in which I'm way more inclined to believe than any of the Al Bhed proverbs Rin's always spitting at me (roughly 50% of which I'm pretty sure he makes up on the spot as it suits whatever he's trying to get me to do), clearly states that there was no way in hell we were making it out of the Via Purifico without some extreme hassle. This cosmic pain in the ass turned up, predictably, in the last cave Bickson had gone into--the one that contained the exit. It turned up, also predictably, in the form of maybe three dozen fiends--full house in this cave like you wouldn't believe--suddenly launching themselves at us.  
  
Reppi, being at the front of the group, was the first one to react. "The fiends are swarming! *Get back!*" she shouted. She practically threw her bag at Naaga and stretched her hands out in front of her. I could see the electricity crackling against her fingertips.  
  
"Zalitz, I don't think you should be doin' that, ya?" Letty asked. I glanced over to see the sailor strapping on his brass knuckles and flexing his fingers.  
  
"Let him go. We don't have a choice," I yelled back, throwing my bag off my shoulder. Naaga caught that one too; she was starting to look like the hapless fanboy she always takes on shopping trips to carry the stacks of bags. "We're gonna cut our way through."  
  
"Linna!" Miyu called, shooting her way up toward me. "Give me one of the spikes! I'm going to hack those sorry little fish to boneless dinner fillets!" You don't mess with a goalie when she's in that kinda mood; I handed her the blitzball. Totally fearlessly, she wrapped her hand around one of the spikes and jerked it out of the ball. A thin stream of blood burst into the water and faded, but she didn't even flinch. Wow.  
  
"Wait!" cried Naaga. She was staring at the fiends. "Something's wrong! They're all twitching!" I spun around to look--she was right. Every one of them was thrashing around like they were all being jabbed with cattle prods.  
  
I couldn't see Miyu's eyes behind her mask, but her facial muscles tensed like those eyes were widening. "Sinspawn," she hissed. "They're not fiends. I fought Sin at Mi'ihen; I know what this is. And they're acting strange."  
  
"Who cares?" Zalitz demanded, already in the thick of things. "We don't have time for this, dudes!"  
  
Miyu dove forward and ripped into the underside of one of the fiends with the dagger. I spun to the other side of the tunnel and pitched the spike ball into one of the sucking ray things.  
  
"We'll force 'em back, you guys just get through!" Reppi ordered. I caught the ball on the rebound and twisted to see who she was talking to. It was the three guys--Bickson, Jassu, and Letty. "Take care'a the kid!" she added, just in case they missed the point.  
  
"You guys have gear with you?" Bickson asked the two Aurochs.  
  
"Huh!" they both intoned back. "Yes," I mouthed quickly to the Goer, who wasn't familiar with Wakka's traditional response training.  
  
He gestured to Naaga. "Make a ring around her. If anything charges you, slam it. Naida, get up ahead." For once, the twit actually listened.  
  
I spiraled through the cave, shooting until the water around me was stained red. No Pyreflies. These things were crawling flesh. Miyu, Zalitz, and Reppi were around me, taking out Sinspawn left and right to clear a path as we worked our way down to the exit.  
  
"Almost there, everyone!" Miyu called.  
  
And then one of the Sinpawn leapt out of the water and over Jassu's head, straight for Naaga. I sprang toward her instinctively, but I knew there wasn't a chance of getting there. She was done for.  
  
The fish went flying and Naaga surfaced, her fist still raised. "Been workin' out," she grinned at me as she dove down to pick up the bags she'd dropped.  
  
Naida was the first one to reach the stairs. She snatched the bags from Naaga and thrust them up ahead of her, then grabbed the girl's hands and pulled her out of the water. The guys made it out of the water next, then Reppi, me, and finally Miyu, still slicing menacingly.  
  
For a second, we just breathed.  
  
*****  
  
And then Naaga screamed. "Something's happening to them!" she repeated. I kept going up the stairs until Reppi finally stopped and turned around so sharply that I crashed into her.  
  
"Whaaat?!" I groaned.  
  
But Naaga was right. The Sinspawn were writhing in the water even more torturedly now, like they were in agony. Suddenly a spray of sparks shot out of the cave depths. I grabbed Naaga and whirled around, covering her; at the same moment Bickson had leapt to protect me. Through my eyelids, though, I could still sense the blinding flash of light and the explosions that rocked the cave.  
  
When we turned back, all the Sinspawn were gone.  
  
Dead silence. Eighteen eyes blinked almost in unison.  
  
"Let's get out of here," Bickson said.  
  
*****  
  
The stairs we were standing on reminded me of a macabre remix of the ones that led to the roof of the Luca blitz stadium--high, narrow, and wrapped in a tight, dark corridor that made you feel like you were falling with every step. The gear bags got too heavy for Naaga to grapple with pretty quickly, but even after we took them back she was stumbling with fatigue. Finally Reppi scooped her up in a pair of strong arms and hauled her up the steps. I was exasperated, but on the other hand I could see her point--I was tired as hell too, and if I'd been young enough to get away with being carried I probably would've made someone do it too.  
  
About the time my thighs and calves were making serious threats to come apart at the seams and fall all the way back down into the water, we finally reached the end of the staircase. About seven feet up from the last step was a round gap in the ceiling, about the size of a manhole. When I looked up, I could see stars.  
  
"Throw the bags up first," Reppi told us wearily, setting Naaga down on the landing. My punk sister stood up and jumped, but she couldn't reach the rim of the hole. Finally, Zalitz made a stirrup out of his hands so she could climb up on his shoulders and out. She spent several seconds longer than strictly necessary running her hands along those broad shoulders, so I knew she was okay by the time Jassu handed our stuff up.  
  
Whumph! Whumph! The gear bags hit the ground above me and Naaga struggled up into the moonlight. Zalitz reached up and grabbed the edge easily, pulling his body up like he was doing a chin-up, no sweat.  
  
Reppi hadn't broken a sweat either when she was carrying Naaga up, but all of a sudden she seemed ready to collapse. Jassu and Letty swung their way out of the hole and helped her up. I heard a thudding noise from above me, and when I angled my head to look through the gap I saw that she had fallen heavily to her knees on the ground and was staring dazedly around her.  
  
I grappled my way up and over the edge and back out into the world. I was free. Breathing the night air for the first time in two days, I looked up over the soft pink light of Bevelle at the sky.  
  
And at that exact moment, the Eternal Calm hit.  
  
Deux ex machina. God from the machine. But there was no god involved, and no machina except the airship. All there was, was a lot of guts. A lot of strength. A lot of sacrifice. And how many times over had we paid in blood for that day?  
  
"Rao, Sus, Tyt," I whispered. "Drao kud res."  
  
Reppi was still gaping around her at all the lights. Bevelle--more than a thousand years of those lights. And above it all, the airship--and Sin.  
  
I reached up and adjusted the lenses on my half-ruined goggles, turning up the light and magnification factors as far as they would go. On full power, I could just see tiny figures on the airship deck. Pyreflies were rising. The huge gray whale-shape of Sin was fading.  
  
And dawn was breaking.  
  
*****  
  
At that point, I realized what was happening and gasped. When Sin was finally gone, all nine of us were already jumping up and down like spastic little kids, so I wasn't paying attention to what happened next. I wish I had been. I wish the sight of the little speck falling from the airship into the pale yellow dawn had been more than something I spotted out of the corner of my eye and ignored. I wish I'd been watching, because it would be a long time before I saw that figure again.  
  
But the sky was turning gold and orange and pink now and there were tears in Reppi's eyes. Miyu was kneeling beside her, and as I watched she stood up, ripped off the harsh mask, and flung it as hard as she could back down that tunnel.  
  
"Linnie," Naaga said after a while, the first to break the spell, "will the airship pick us up? They're really close and all."  
  
"Of course Aniki will come to get us!" Naida told her, unconsciously adjusting her bikini strap as she craned her neck to look upward. Jassu and Letty snapped to attention.  
  
"Isn't this a commsphere?" Bickson asked. He was standing behind me, and when I turned, I saw that we'd surfaced only a few feet from the temple walls. On one of the walls was a small glowing panel with a Yevon glyph. I shrugged and touched it.  
  
It flashed and the familiar menu kicked in. The temple was hooked up to the Al Bhed sphere network; whoever had programmed it hadn't even bothered to translate it into English. I had to pound it a couple times to get it working, but eventually it figured out that I wasn't kidding and connected me to Rin's commsphere.  
  
I'm not sure whether I'd expected him to age ten years from all the stress or lose ten years because Sin was finally gone, but he looked the same as he always had, so I didn't say anything. He was as polite as always, but as always he didn't waste time. "Secc Linna," he greeted me. "In the future, may I respectfully request that you not disappear with no warning for extended periods of time. Your teammates are rather distressed."  
  
"It ain't a pleasure cruise, Coach," I snapped. "Run out to the observation deck and look carefully at the temple, why don't you?"  
  
"As you wish, Secc Linna, but I fail to see--"  
  
"Just humor me already; it's been a long week."  
  
He got the message and held the sphere carefully out in front of him as he walked to the glass-encased observation deck. I was looking at a bird's-eye view of Bevelle, and as he focused in on the temple the little dots that were us got more and more distinct until I could make myself out pretty clearly. I waved, just so he got the message.  
  
Rin turned the sphere back inward and opened his mouth to speak. And that was the point when the doors on the observation deck slammed open and Yuna staggered through and fell to her knees.  
  
She was shaking with silent sobs, bent forward with her hands on the floor. The end of her long sleeve caught on the edge of a panel and she jerked it free so violently that it ripped and fell to the deck like a dying bird.  
  
Behind her were Rikku and Madame Goth and Fuzzbrain Ronso and Wakka. The creepy guy in the red coat wasn't there. Tidus wasn't there. No one said anything. We all just stood and watched Spira's salvation cry.  
  
"Tidus?" I begged Rin in a whisper. He looked around, slowly and deliberately, and shook his head.  
  
I turned away from the panel and stretched my hands out to the two Aurochs. We stood there silently for just a sec, holding onto each other, and then I faced Rin again.  
  
"Rin," I said quietly, "we need a ride."  
  
"Bevelle. The temple," he breathed. "The Via?"  
  
"The Via."  
  
His gasp was sharp, and his eyes softened. "We'll be there, Secc Linna."  
  
He was about to click off when Yuna stood up. Her eyes were red but clear, and she was looking straight at me through the commsphere.  
  
I'm sure it was an accident. But you know how someone's eyes brush across yours for a second and hit, and you feel a jolt?  
  
Slowly, I bent forward and blitz-bowed to the first and last living High Summoner.  
  
When I came up, she forced herself to smile and bow back. I think that was the moment it really hit me. She was alive. A summoner was alive. Sin was gone for good this time.  
  
And so, I realized, was Tidus.  
  
In that moment, she looked so strong, and suddenly his face flashed before my eyes. Those lonely nights I'd spent sobbing like that on the airship. I remembered asking him, "She's so important to you that you'd let Sin go on killing, let me and Wakka and everyone else in this world die, if it would keep her alive? You'd sacrifice a whole chessboard for a pawn?" I remembered the pain in his blue eyes as he answered, "Yes." He'd done it. He'd saved her after all. When I'd think about him in the years to come, I'd remember that, and I'd think that his life must have ended happily.  
  
"Uin Calm, Linna. Ed'c ymm ujan huf," Bickson said.  
  
I turned around to him and smiled. "Yeah, Bick. It's finally over."  
  
Or maybe it was just beginning.  
  
The airship was descending through the first dawn of the Eternal Calm. I looked around at my friends' faces. Naaga. Bickson. Miyu. The Aurochs. Reppi. Zalitz. Even Naida. We'd been through a lot. It was time to rebuild.  
  
Bick was right. It was our Calm. Spira was finally ours again, after a thousand years. And we had our whole lives ahead of us to enjoy it.  
  
I walked out of the shadow of the temple into the sunlight and drank in the first dawn of eternity.  
  
**********  
  
Translations:  
  
dra tayt faekrd ryc paah cdnebbat vnus dra machina - the dead weight has been stripped from the machina  
  
"Rao, Sus, Tyt. Drao kud res." - "Hey, Mom, Dad. They got him."  
  
"Uin Calm, Linna. Ed'c ymm ujan huf." - "Our Calm, Linna. It's all over now." 


	18. Epilogue

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Okay, this is the end of the GEO storyline. The notes'll be up pretty soon. Thanks again to everyone, and have brilliant and happy and wonderful holidays.  
  
Author's Note: The narrator of this story is Al Bhed, and some dialogue and idiomatic phrases have not been translated into English. Translations of all Al Bhed phrases can be found at the end of the chapter in which they appear.  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
epilogue  
  
**********  
  
"Come on, blitzheads, get a move on!" Wedge's voice boomed over the intercom. "We've gotta get this sphere drained before the High Summoner's address!"  
  
I cracked my knuckles, but the guy had a point. "All right, guys, you heard the man. Pack it in," I told the Aurochs, sticking one hand out to catch the ball Botta had slammed back toward left sphere.  
  
"Man, looks like everyone else in Spira's already packin' it in. We're goin' to get nosebleed seats," Datto commented ruefully, looking around at the crowds already starting to fill the stadium.  
  
"Yeah, if we're lucky," Jassu told him. "Let's go."  
  
I swam over to where the oxygen tanks we used for practice were floating, grabbed them and the spare blitzballs, and hauled ass through the tunnel. The guys were right behind me. As soon as we hit the sphere pool, the shower charge started. After I shoved the seniority thing where it belonged (i.e. six feet under), we'd eventually worked out this system-whoever grabbed one could keep it. I nearly slipped on the locker room floor, but I snagged a shower and was out by the time Keepa finally showed up--still chewing.  
  
"I'm heading out, guys," I called over my shoulder, cramming my stuff in my locker and kicking it until it finally slammed. "Want me to save you seats?"  
  
"If you can get 'em," Letty called back.  
  
I walked out the door, turned the corner, and slammed into Bickson two inches later. We both cursed at the same time in two different languages. "This is a stadium lobby, not a hotel lounge! Why the hell are you lurking around outside my locker room door like a damn sex offender?!" I demanded.  
  
He rubbed his shin, looking annoyed. "You want a place to sit or not? Miyu's holding 'em in the second box."  
  
My ears perked up and I decided to shelf the aesthetics of locker-room lurking for a while. "Second box seats? Damn, you move fast."  
  
"You'd better move faster if you want to keep 'em." He grabbed my hand and tore off through the crowds, practically dragging me with him. "Let's go already!"  
  
*****  
  
"Man, ya poke," Naaga complained, pinching me as I slid into the seat next to Miyu, breathing just a little harder than usual. "It took ya long enough."  
  
"Can it, punk. Some of us were actually working instead of just hanging around outside the Beasts' locker room hoping Isken'd walk out in a towel," I cracked. "What time is it, anyway?"  
  
"Just before noon. High Summoner Yuna should be speaking soon," Miyu replied. I actually looked over at her for the first time and did a double-take. She'd ditched the mask and was wearing a green sundress that fluttered in the slight breeze. I kinda wished that breeze would pick up. The weather reports'd been saying it was going to be a hot spring this year.  
  
"That new?" I asked. She knew it looked good without me having to tell her. Compliments were never part of my upbringing.  
  
She nodded. "Mmm-hmm. It's been a while since I've been out in anything other than my uniform. I thought it'd make a nice change of pace."  
  
"Certainly," Rin broke in. He was leaning over the bleacher row behind me. "Good afternoon, Secc Linna, Secc Naaga. Where are those blitzing comrades of yours?"  
  
"We're comin', ya?" Jassu called. The Aurochs--minus Wakka, who was standing on the balcony behind Yuna trying to look important, and Tidus--were coming toward us at a high rate of speed, thankfully not huffing at all. Their training was paying off.  
  
"Typical Auroch, slinking in late," sneered Bickson, in character as usual. "Look. Lady Yuna's getting ready to start."  
  
We were level with the balcony, almost directly across the stadium. I'd fixed my goggles, but Rin had remembered a pair of binoculars, and the others were taking turns passing them around so they could see the summoner. She was standing alone on the front of the balcony with her guardians behind her, just waiting with her hands folded for silence.  
  
When it was quiet, she began. "Everyone...everyone has lost something precious." Miyu and Rin both reacted at the same time, closing their eyes almost in sync. She noticed and lightly touched his arm, and he looked at her and nodded with the eyes of someone who's been through it too. Hmm.  
  
"Everyone here has lost homes, dreams, and friends," Yuna continued. "Everybody..." She looked just a little off-balance, and I had a feeling I knew what she was thinking about. Aside from Redcoat, one face was painfully missing from the line of guardians. But then she straightened up and the same expression came across her face that I'd seen when we'd bowed to each other on the airship. "Now Sin is finally dead."  
  
The crowd burst into wild applause at that one. Reppi blasted a deafening whistle almost straight into my eardrum. The other Aurochs stood up and stomped their feet.  
  
"Now," Yuna continued, and everyone shut up right away, "Spira is ours again. Working together...now we can make new homes for ourselves--and new dreams."  
  
I leaned back and poked Rin. "A new Home, right?"  
  
He smiled enigmatically. "We shall see, Secc Linna."  
  
"Although I know the journey will be hard, we have lots of time," Yuna was saying. "Together, we will rebuild Spira. The road is ahead of us, so let's start out today."  
  
More applause. This time I stomped with the rest of the Aurochs. I was really getting into the whole motivational-lecture mentality here.  
  
"Just...one more thing." The high summoner's voice was shaking a little now. She leaned on the balcony railing for just a sec to steady herself, then stretched out to her full height and cried the next part out so the entire stadium could hear it. "The people and the friends that we have lost, or the dreams that have faded..."  
  
She paused. Flash! Sitting on Mom's lap as a little kid, the Psyches uniform, being told I had to be the best. Flash! Dad, just a hazy almost-faceless memory. Flash! Home, my plants, the fire. Flash! Winning the tournament, wrapping my arms around Tidus and screaming. Flash! Yuna crying on the airship.  
  
"...never forget them."  
  
"We won't, Lady Yuna," Miyu whispered to herself, her fists clenching. "Trust me. We won't."  
  
*****  
  
"So what'd you guys think?" Naaga asked as we wound our way out of the stadium and down the main drag of the city to the cafe about ten minutes later.  
  
"I like that child," Reppi answered definitely. Even after all this time since she'd been in Luca, she still knew the way to the sports bar by heart. "She's got a good head on'er shoulders, huh?"  
  
"I wonder if she'll just go back to Besaid now that it's all over," Miyu mused. She was fingering the hem of her sundress like she wasn't quite used to it yet but wanted to be. It was strange how much she looked at home in it. "I imagine it'd be hard to go back after seeing the whole world."  
  
Rin had the same thought I did and smiled. "Are you talking about yourself or Yuna, Secc Miyu?"  
  
She turned to him. "Why not both of us? Some day, not too far away, I'll try to talk to my parents, and maybe they'll understand. Either way, I could never go back to the Moonflow. It's time to put the past behind me, isn't it? My future is here, with all of you."  
  
"What are you gonna do, Rin?" Naaga piped up.  
  
He smiled again and looked up at the colored banners hanging above the streets, thinking. "Now that you have the freedom to see the world, Secc Naaga, would you return to a cloister in the sands of Bikanel?"  
  
She shook her head. "No way! When there are so many cute guys out here?" I had to wonder whether or not she was kidding.  
  
"Nor could I," Rin replied. "When I left Home ten years ago after your mother died, I thought I was running away from the world. Now, however, I believe that the only time at which I ran from everything was the time I spent there, sheltered from everything beyond those ten towers. I think it was good for you and your sister to grow up with such a strong Al Bhed identity, and after losing your parents...you needed to have a support system. But now you're old enough to know what the wider world is really like. You should enjoy it. I fully intend to."  
  
"But where are you going?" asked Miyu.  
  
He spread his hands. "Anywhere. Everywhere. I'd like to try my hand at some new things. I have a few new ideas for games, and now I will have the time to try them out." We were on the bridge now. For some reason, the water had never seemed so blue before.  
  
"What about you, Reppi?" Bickson asked. "You getting back in the game?"  
  
"You bet!" she answered, pumping her fist. "As soon as all this commotion dies down, I'm headin' straight'ta Bevelle to start my own team again."  
  
"Bevelle? No bad associations there?" Miyu wanted to know.  
  
"You kiddin'? I spent two years there, and I never even got'ta see the place! I'm lookin' forward ta' it. That many people, there's gotta be some blitz talent there. We're gonna be slammin' all you guys in the majors in no time."  
  
Naaga tugged on the edge of Bickson's gauntlet. "Biiiiickson, you're staying in Luca, right?"  
  
He nodded. "Yep--for the rest of the season, anyway. When it ends, I'm gonna travel. You guys aren't the only ones who spent their whole lives in one place. I've traveled some, but I've never lived anywhere but Luca. Maybe I'll go hiking on Mt. Gagazet, see with my own eyes if Zanarkand is really bigger than this place."  
  
There was silence for a sec, and then I realized everyone was staring at me. "Whaaa?" I demanded.  
  
"You've been pretty quiet, 'Secc Linna,'" Miyu teased me. "Come on, share it with the class. Got any big plans for the Calm?"  
  
"I'm gonna sleep in until noon tomorrow," I deadpanned.  
  
Naaga punched me in the arm. "Be serious!"  
  
"You think I ain't?" I laughed. She scowled. "All right, fine. Let me think."  
  
The crowds were even higher than usual in blitz season, and we were fighting our way through the throng of sunkissed bodies and banners. I remembered seeing pretty much the same scene the first time I'd come to Luca and getting freaked out, but now I leaned back and enjoyed it. I was realizing for the first time how gorgeous the city is in the daytime--the sun glints off the water, streamers and balloons and ads pouring out of the buildings and over the railings.  
  
"I want to see the world too," I blurted out without even having to think about it. It'd never even occurred to me before I'd said it that this was what I wanted to do. "I want to go camping at Mushroom Rock. I want to go swimming in the spring in Macalania Woods. I want to ride Chocobos in the Calm Lands. I want to do all the things I've never gotten to do before." I grinned and pumped a fist like Tidus. "And I want to become the best blitzer this wreck has ever seen!"  
  
"One-track mind, huh?" Reppi chuckled to herself.  
  
"Oh, let Secc Linna have her dreams," Rin told the goalie, raising a hand to cut her off. "After all, that's all they are. She'd have to beat me for them to come true, and...with apologies, I don't see that happening."  
  
"Who are you kidding, ya geezer?!" I snapped. "I could take you right now."  
  
He grinned. "Could you now? Well, then. As I believe your generation says, Secc Linna, 'you want a piece of me? Come get it.'"  
  
We were passing the sphere theater, where the whole adventure had started three weeks ago. Just ahead of us, I could see the square. Mitza was still hawking his blitz stuff, and I had to laugh at the beach towels with my picture on them. I wondered if the bar would have my virgin strawberry daquiri ready with an Aurochs umbrella when we got there.  
  
I laughed. "Bring it on, babe. Bring it on." 


	19. Character's Notes

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy X, Spira, blitzball, and all related characters and locations are owned by Squaresoft, with the exception of a few original characters who will be noted as such. This is a work of fanfiction, meaning that it is both created by a fan for no purpose other than entertainment, and it is fiction, meaning that all characters and events are purely fictonal and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.  
  
Okay, this is the official end of GEO. Again, thanks to everyone who's reading this. ^__^ Everyone who celebrates it, have a great Christmas, and the rest of you enjoy having a couple days off in the middle of the week--that's what Linna'd be doing. ^__~ Hopefully I'll see you all again soon!  
  
Green Eyes in Overdrive  
  
by flame mage  
  
character's notes  
  
**********  
  
[The scene: the Cafe at Luca. Linna, Naaga, Miyu, Bickson, Reppi, Rin, and all the Aurochs except  
  
Keepa are sitting at the bar--which means they're taking up the whole thing, which several of the  
  
Ronso patrons in the corner look slightly disgruntled about.]  
  
Keepa: *huffing through the doorway* Whew.  
  
Botta: Hey, hey, look who's paying.  
  
Rin: Well, this is fortunate. It seems we may now commence with the notes.  
  
Miyu: Finally. The Glories have practice tonight.  
  
Datto: Ugh, the Glories. Those Guado...!  
  
Naaga: Wow. It looks like the Guado have replaced the Al Bhed as the outcast race in Spira, huh?  
  
Linna: Forget the water coolers already. Our adoring public's waiting.  
  
Reppi: Hey there, everyone. We just wanna thank'ya again fa' still readin' about us, even afta' all this time. It's cool ta' know that so many a'ya aren't sick'a those guys yet. *points to  
  
Linna and Naaga*  
  
Naaga: Aww, they can't get sick of me. I'm just too cute. *big grin*  
  
Linna: Actually, I think the real literary triumph here is that they're not too exasperated by your accent to try to decipher it yet.  
  
Reppi: Punk kid.  
  
Bickson: *with the air of someone who is decisively taking charge* Anyway, thanks to everyone who read, and especially everyone who reviewed. SQ, Pierson, miaowne, Tuna-chan, and everyone else who kept reading, you guys are getting front-row seats at the next Goers-Aurochs game.  
  
Jassu: --which we'll win.  
  
Bickson: *glares* --AS I WAS SAYING, and thanks to everyone who reviewed for the first time, too. Fanworship is one of the best things about my job.  
  
Rin: We would also like to thank Barak Michener once again for creating the Bikanel Al Bhed-English translator. This was an invaluable tool in our endeavors, aside from the fact that it allowed Linna and Naida to squabble like small and not particularly well-raised children.  
  
Linna: And just who raised us again?  
  
Rin: Good point.  
  
Miyu: And while we're at it, thanks to the people at ffexpert for the Hymn of the Fayth translation. I'm not sure who had enough spare time to sit down and figure that out, but it's a neat thing to know, isn't it? Oh, right, the Final Fantasy Compendium helped with mechanics too.  
  
Letty: There's still one question, though.  
  
Reppi: What question?  
  
Keepa: Well...are we ever coming back? Now that FFX-2's out and all?  
  
*everyone looks at Linna*  
  
Linna: Whaa--waiddaminute. How do I get stuck with deciding this?!  
  
Bickson: Because we'll look stupid without an obnoxiously loveable egocentric heroine. We're becoming too formulaic to rely on, say, me for a central plotline, handsome and dashing male lead though I am.  
  
Linna: True. Okay, well...hmm. This worked out kinda weird. This particular adventure was supposed to be about half as long as it actually ended up being, so it's really a sequel and not a side story now that I think about it.  
  
Reppi: Yeah, and...?  
  
Linna: So trilogies are popular, right? Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, the Matrix...think of the money we could make here.  
  
Naaga: What are those?  
  
Linna: I have no idea, because they're outside of our cannon and inserting them in here is the mark of a bad fanfic. But they're good examples of my point. Besides, I started thinking that way even before miaowne started making noises about a trilogy, and now I'm convinced that it must be a brilliant idea. Mainly because I'll get paid overtime for it.  
  
Bickson: So our contracts are being renewed?  
  
Linna: You're kidding, right? It didn't bother anyone else that there's a chick running around on Bikanel Island who looks EXACTLY LIKE ME?  
  
Miyu: And it seems like everyone kind of appreciates the fact that I'm dealing with my past. I think I pulled a Yuna here. And, hey, didn't it work for her?  
  
Rin: And what of the fates of the Al Bhed and the Guado?  
  
Naaga: And what about Tidus?! He can't be gone, right? I really liked him...  
  
Botta: I guess we're stuck with it then.  
  
Linna: *shrug* Oh, well. All right, people. I swear this is really the last time I'm gonna do this, but I hear the gaping plot holes are driving the mage crazy. So here's the deal: our contracts extend to one more story to round the series out and cover the FFX-2 storyline. If you think it'll kill the story or if we're boring you, hey, don't read it. But if you're one of those people who loves action, adventure, the occasional globule of fluff hitting you in the face, or blond chicks wearing crazy outfits and talking to cacti, you'll probably want to read "Green Eyes Plays Dress-Up."  
  
Bickson: This is gonna be an interesting ride.  
  
Linna: Hahaha. You have no idea. 


End file.
